At the end of his life, British philosopher Richard Wollheim (1923-2003) penned this brilliant, unconventional memoir. In evocative, somewhat Proustian prose, Wollheim re-creates the mindset of childhood, that primitive, formative world where things—houses, clothes, meals, parents—loom large around us, indispensable yet out of our control. "[A] radiant masterpiece…. [This book] is by turns exquisite, appalling, mysterious, and very, very funny…. [Wollheim] is one of those supreme observers who we feel is presenting things as they actually were."—John Banville