Preface : "the history of a writer" -- "Godly folk" -- "A foretaste of heaven" -- "Being left" -- Foreign devils -- "Parental expectation" -- "All aspiration" -- "Literary development" -- "The art of writing" -- Distant sons -- "Flowering into literature" -- "Heroes" -- "His own tune" -- "Choice souls" -- "All my faults and virtues" -- "Millstones" -- "The 'way within'" -- "My real vocation" -- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- "The finest bridge in all Peru" -- Preparation and circumstance -- "Variety, variety" -- "Home" -- "Strands and threads" -- Our living and our dying -- The village and the stars -- "Chalk...or fire" -- "Perseverance" -- "Seeing, knowing and telling" -- "The eternal family" -- "The closing of the door" -- "Wartime" -- "Post-war adjustment exercise" -- Searching for the right way -- Kaleidoscopic views -- "The human adventure" -- "Tapestry" -- "Life and death".