[2] It was followed by Falling Towards England, published in 1985, May Week Was in June (1990), North Face of Soho (2006) and The Blaze of Obscurity (2009).

This volume of James's autobiography follows his life from his early childhood in the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, through school and university until he sets sail for the United Kingdom in 1962.

Writing in The Canberra Times John Pomeroy noted: "There is much goodwill and affection in these recollections and there is evidence of a painful audit of emotions and influences from his formative years.

The book may be short of great names and events and lacking the strong narrative of My Brother Jack, but they will strike a chord for many of his generation.

He sets to work with singular material, a combination of an exceptional young mind, an upbringing in the exotically named town of Kogarah, a pained childhood with his father, a Japanese prisoner of war, surviving only to die in a repatriation plane crash and his mother worn by worry and toil and, finally, tragedy.