The Quirky Clan – A Biography of an Eccentric Family’s Unconventional Lives is the story of the extraordinary life of Anna Rains and her very eccentric family. Spanning five generations, it was written to tell her grandchildren and those coming after about the lives of their predecessors so that these wonderful stories would not be lost forever.

At the centre of the story is Anna herself, and her unusual and colourful childhood. Often touching, always funny and upbeat, it begins with her travels round the country with her parents and siblings in a converted bus.

A funfair and circus were part of these journeys. A remote cottage with no water, electricity, or sanitation, and Romany gypsy neighbours also played significant roles in the fascinating early life of the author.

Her later life has been equally engrossing. She describes the one-way ticket to Hong Kong when she was eighteen and her experiences in the early seventies in California with hippie neighbours, (she grew up fast, she says!) Thumbnail sketches of her many jobs are amusingly combined with accounts of flying lessons, sailing, her forty-six moves to new homes, and stories about her aunt, eccentric mother and grandmother, and unusual friends.

At the age of 81 she says she is still living life to the full. Never bored and, metaphorically, still finding ‘new mountains to climb’.

One grandfather was a toy salesman, the other a colonel who was awarded the CMG for bravery in the First World War. Among the historical memories are details about this grandfather’s time in the trenches while serving in the Royal Scots, (The Royal Regiment).

Accounts of his and her uncle’s military careers are included in the book. Beautifully written, and with a wonderful sense of fun and self-mockery, The Quirky Clan is an account of a life lived to the full by the indomitable Anna, and her zestful enjoyment of whatever fate has offered.

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