This author masterfully evokes the nostalgic atmosphere of childhood, advocating for the value of privacy, unstructured time, and freedom for children. His works contrast the overscheduled lives of modern youth with recollections of his own quieter past, emphasizing the joys of boredom and the power of self-directed exploration. The author's enduring legacy lies in reminding us of the importance of unburdened time and appreciating life's simple pleasures, like watching grass grow.
The author reminisces about the simple joys of his 1920s childhood, when he dealt with collecting horse-chestnuts, playing neighborhood sports, reading books, searching for arrowheads, and building a treehouse.
Benton Kirby is in a spot of bother...His life hasn't exactly gone to plan. This is hardly surprising, however, as he never really had one in the first place. Armed with a philosophy degree, a dead fiancée, a brother who drives Death around London in his black cab, and a girlfriend with a history of suicidal pets, Benton - ambitionless and emotionally disengaged - embarks, for no apparent reason, on an affair with a beautiful, sexually adventurous, Korean virgin.Following a strange snowballing of even stranger events, he finds himself, at last, exactly not where he ever imagined he would be, up a tree at night in the park with a hedgehog...