In this first volume of her autobiography, M.M.Kaye, author of The Far Pavilions, evokes the inspiration behind her much-loved novels - India, where she was born and which, throughout a comfortless exile in England, remained home for her. From earliest childhood in Simla, among the foothills of the Himalayas, where half the horizon was bounded by snow peaks, to winters in Delhi, where she fell in love with the dry, dusty expanse of the Indian plains, M.M.Kaye's heart and mind were open to every beauty and strangeness. She tells her story with vitality and freshness as someone for whom childhood remains a passionate reality. We learn of her brother, Bill - sent away, as the author and her sister were to be later, to the chilly banishment of an English boarding school. We hear of parties and camping expeditions with children both Indian and European. And of Tacklow the author's remarkable and adored father, who had met and married the children's mother in China and brought her back to India. Despite Tacklow's honourable service, the family was sent back to England with a tiny pension, and M.M.Kaye tells of her feelings of exile there. Home was always India and this first volume ends when the author at 18 joyfully returns.