Homing by Alistair Moffat
After the deaths of his grandmother and his father, Andrew Moffat dicovered that they had kept hidden what they saw as a shaming secret. Moffat soon realised that he had grown up in ignorance of his family's past. 'Homing' captures a lost world of terraced council houses, gardens with picket fences and of local grocery vans. Rereuns of the Second World War played out among the potato patches, of heroes like Dan Dare, Digby and Jack Brabham. He describes his search for the truth about his grandmother's family, seeking out the places where she lived in early life. As he uncovers more of her story he begins to understand why she, his father and others have been so secretive. Alistair Moffat's beautiful memoir recreates his childhood landscape and the landscape of the past with equal immediacy.