Dick King-Smith's memoirs dwell mainly on his farming and writing careers, roles which have very strong links with one another and which provides a firm framework to his reminiscences of early life and family history.

Starting with his apprenticeship on a farm before World War II (when horses and men provided the labour), the book touches lightly on his war experiences and his childhood romance with the girl to whom he eventually married before moving on to the core of Dick's memoirs - the fourteen years he spent on Woodlands Farm where the eccentric cast of animal and human characters provided a wealth of material for his later writtings.

With a herd of cows that resembled Fred Karno'sarmy (inluding Ben the bull who makes an unforgettable bid for freedom), a goat who likes riding in the passenger seat of the farm van, and - naturally - a host of majestic pigs.

When the farm failed, Dick had to find another profession and after one or two remarkably ill-suited jobs settled happily into teaching before blossoming into his third and best known career as a writer, finding international fame with the release of the film "Babe".