GROWING up in the 1960s could sometimes be fearful rather than fab as nineyear- old Leila rapidly discovers after a particularly gruesome encounter with death.

Sent to the North of England to stay with relatives she thereafter looks forward to her family "holidays" which plunge her into a new world ripe with fresh promise, although even this Eden does have serpents lurking in it.

Sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a bygone age are evoked in a charming manner and gilded with all the magic of childhood innocence.

(Grosvenor House Publishing www.grosvenorhousepublishing.co.uk).