Most of these stories, including such improbable one as "Kill Them! Kill Them!", "The Whitaker Negroes" and "A Toast to Ava Gardner" are, the author assures us, true. Hugerly varies, they range from an amusing account of a heroic protest at prep school ("Treacle Tart"), to the bizarre tale of a con-man who uses the art of escapology in real-life situations, and the unnerving story of a man who claims to possess the power to kill with his voice ("The Shout") Written between 1924 and 1962, each story stands on its own; but together, as autobiography, this collection makes a fascinating companion to Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves's famous account of his life at Charterhouse School and as a young officer in the First World War.

