This book is a true account of what should have been the simplest of operations but turned out to be a disastrous result for Jim, the author. -----------At the age of four, because of the Easter bombings in May 1941, my family was bombed out of our beautiful home and evacuated to a farm thirty miles north of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

A year or so later, we returned and lived in a very deprived area in the city. My father, an old soldier, was an alcoholic and a heavy smoker, who smoked in the region of a thousand cigarettes a week; the cupboards were bare and family life broke down.

My mother had little or no money for food, or even necessary items. I became something of a problem child and at around the age of ten, was convicted of theft for stealing food.

I was put in the care of an extremely tough children's home until the age of sixteen. Because of the problems in my early life, I never did smoke or drink, and at the age of twenty-six, I married, and subsequently, my wife and I went into fostering which we did for many years, along with our six children.

We finally retired over forty-five years later. .