Not another memoir of childhood? Well, yes actually. Not another regressive desire to capture a golden weren't-we-poor-but-happy age? Well, no. Nor a pursuit of misery and repression either. This is simply a journey into the author's past in the quiet, sleepy midlands village of Ballivor sixty odd years ago. This book grew out of the radio documentary Goodnight Ballivor, Ill Sleep in Trim. That expression, common to those who grew up in Ballivor, yet shrouded in mystery, was the obvious title to give to a radio memoir. The wonderful reaction to it surprised the author, but it shouldn't have. It was the old story of the local being universal. Twelve years after the documentary was first broadcast, the author has finally acceded to the many requests to put this rich tapestry of his own memories, and those of his counterparts, into print.