Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve - Dannie Abse

Sharp, sad and romantic, Dannie Abse's reminiscences weave the private fortunes of a Jewish family in Cardiff into the troubled tapestry of the times. Unemployment, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, the Spanish Civil War, the fate of the European Jews; all these themes are the more real for being seen through the angry, irreverent eyes of youth - just as the neighbour's drinking problem, the Cardiff boy who died in Spain, the Reverent Aaronowich and his estranged son, seen through the same eyes, achieve universality.