Professor Walter Ledermann is one of the great algebraists of the twentieth century. His memoirs begin with life in pre-war Germany, the murder of several members of his family, and of the joy he found in mathematics and music. As the story of his remarkable life unfolds, we are entranced by tales of Scotland during the war and of academic life in Manchester and Sussex. His memoirs contain numerous entertaining, and often hilarious anecdotes of his encounters with famous mathematicians and physicists, such as Issai Schur, Heinz Hopf, Max Plank, Erwin Schroedinger, Edmund Whittaker, Alec Aitkin, Max Born and Alan Turing.