Although born in America in 1928, Thomas Dodd moved to the North of England with his American mother and returning English father. Finally settling down in South Shields in North East England, Tom spent most of his formative years in the intense poverty and dramatically difficult life of a working class family in Depression and WWII England. Coping with determination and the renowned British humor the family perseveres and survives in this well written gripping, eye opening but still entertaining memoir.