Alice, the author's mother, is mentioned frequently in this account of his book. A disciplinarian to no small degree, she did her best in the trying pre-war times of unemployment. A fair amount of the author's recollections concerns the ups and downs of life in the small Derbyshire town of Clowne in the thirties. The history and records of shops and ownership in Clowne might be said to be as meticulous as the records in the Doomsday book

But what makes this volume most valuable is the author's memories and insights into that ballerina of the skies, the Spitfire, the key player in the...