Memoir / autobiography is my favourite genre, but I couldn't finish this book.

With this book Vernon Scannell completes his autobiographical trilogy, recalling his childhood and early manhood, culminating in his joining the army in 1940. Here he explores the relationship between himself, his siblings and his sadistic and probably psychotic father, set against the backdrop of pre-war Britain.
A British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and has written novels about boxing.
He was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, and brought up principally in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. He left school at 14. During World War II he served in the British Army in the Gordon Highlanders, in France and North Africa. He was imprisoned for desertion, took part in the Normandy landings and was wounded, and once more deserted after VE Day. He wrote about these experiences in An Argument of Kings (1987). He subsequently worked as a boxer, and later studied at the University of Leeds, encountering Bonamy Dobrée and G. Wilson Knight. He was arrested as a deserter in 1947, and sent to a mental hospital. He returned to Leeds in 1948, and put together a first poetry collection, published by the Fortune Press. He subsequently worked as teacher and for BBC Radio, while developing his range as a writer.