Lovely memoir by one of the best film critics writing today. He also lives now in SF. This is the story of his childhood in London while growing up after the war. It gives a personal feeling of the sweetness of boyhood as well the yearning for his father's love. They shared many things but the Dad had another family and disappeared from home mysteriously every week. I liked the tension between the chronicle of the world around him and his feelings for his family. The changes in British life are not sentimentalized but they are nostalgic in the best way for Thomson. ( )

Interesting view of life right after WWII. His father left his mother for 'war work' and continued coming home every other weekend and all holidays for 30 years. ( )