An upbeat story of three generations of one family whose lives spanned continents, war, immigration and ultimately, life in New Zealand. Vanessa Bryson was born in 1949, into an age of post-war idealism and austerity. Her English mother and New Zealand father had already lived through the Great Depression, personal loss, and a world war, experiences which shaped their hopes and dreams for the future. Like everyone else of their generation, they had good reason to want a quiet life. Vanessa and her siblings had an early literary diet of Enid Blyton and AA Milne, at school it was Janet and John and the family of the Commonwealth. And despite evidence to the contrary, this is a family for whom idealism was not easily overcome.