The book is about my grandparents' lives - my grandfather particularly. He was born in the workhouse and brought up by his grandparents after his mother married, when he was four years old. He enlisted in the Army at twenty, shortly before meeting Ada, his wife. They were together for less than a month before he was posted to India and China, and he was away for six years. Ada died at thirty-eight. He lost his children to family members, all separated, and was left alone. He became a gentleman of the road and died at seventy-three on a park bench near the churchyard, where his wife and young daughter were buried.