"This book is about a most private and secret habit my father had, and about the strange adventures it led us both into..." Danny thinks the world of his father, who has looked after him ever since his mother died, when he was just four months old.But as he grows up, Danny discovers that his father's secret spells adventure and trouble for both of them.
The third novel in Annie Murray's "Birmingham" series. While Genie's father is away fighting in World War II, her mother has a ruinous affair which leaves her pregnant; Genie's little brother leaves, never to return; while Genie herself meets a man who then disappears to war.