The story of Joe from the end of A SON OF WAR, aged 16 (1955), through to the end of his first year at Oxford (1959), crossing the lines between childhood and adulthood as well as crossing from working class small town Wigton to cosmopolitan, rarefied Oxford and all that promises for the future. The main thread is his relationship with Rachel, the 15 yr old schoolgirl he starts going out with in secret for fear of her father's fury and ends up engaged to while at Oxford until she breaks it off, knowing that they are on different paths in life and she belongs in the old, Wigton one. The dramas are the stuff of ordinary, family life, but Joe's rites of passage through adolescence will resonate with many, as will the example he sets of the new, post-war generation - the first 'teenagers', rock and roll and Teddy Boys.