Jolyon Nuttall, a retired newspaperman from a family steeped in literature, writes with feeling and depth - and often with wry humour - about episodes in his life as diverse as the romanticism of early loves through to the agonies of boiling an egg and learning to live alone after a long marriage. He has spurned the autobiography in favour of the essay as the Orwellian literary form in which to record these and other significant happenings in his life.