This collection of poems opens up a crack in the lining of a poet's life to show what it was like to grow up in a family in the decades after the war, how it shapes the individual, what they learn and keep in their heart, the rituals and routines that are handed down the generations. These poems not only take us back in time to a childhood in the sixties, teenage-hood in the seventies, and motherhood in the eighties, they also take us through the life of a poet, showing us how our upbringing stays with us, influences us, and shapes the individual.