A small English- born boy is removed from the home counties to the remote Scottish Highlands in the mid 1940s and spends the next 15 years being raised on a grouse shooting lodge. This remote and rural environment was in sharp contrast to the suburban life he had previously known. Descriptions of the local characters, the vagaries of the language, the details of the establishment of an up-scale hostelry, and the day-today adventures of a child with an exploring nature and the wide open expanse of wild moorland provide many opportunities for the establishment of lifelong memories.