A Tale Within A Tale; A Personal Journey Through The 20th Century

This is truly a tale within a tale. The larger story is a nostalgic journey through a remarkable century, which began with no domestic electricity, no motorised vehicles and a life expectancy of just 47 years, and yet saw technological, scientific and medical achievements unsurpassed in history.

The author's parents were born right at the beginning of the century and lived almost to its end. In many ways they were an "ordinary" couple, surviving two world wars, appreciating the birth of a National Health Service, and viewing in wonder a man walk on the moon, for example. Despite suffering tragedy and loss, enduring hardship and disappointment, they lived to enjoy a better standard of living than they had ever dreamed possible, and they were "extraordinary" in that they left their mark on anyone who was privileged to know them.

The story within is their story, and how their lives, and the lives of all of us, intertwine with the personal and public events that happen around us.

This book is unique in that it describes the close family bonds that glued lives together interlaced with the background history of the century of growth, invention, development against a backdrop of World horror.