On a summer's day on the Somme in 1916, one brave battalion lost half its men to enemy fire in an hour. What went wrong? Martha Kearey dressed in black for the rest of her life in memory of the four sons she lost on that day in the First World War, proudly wearing each of their medals in turn on Sundays. Nearly a century on, her grandson Terence has set out to do justice to the memory of his uncles and their colleagues with a full account of the role of their Battalion, the Kensingtons, on the Somme in the summer of 1916. The Kensingtons, guardians of the right flank on the battlefront at Gommecourt, were ordered to march on the enemy without proper preparation in a move later condemned as foolhardy and suicidal. That summer's day, cut to pieces by enemy artillery, they lost half their men in less than an hour. Kearey sets out a candid account of the action, examining why this tragic and unnecessary slaughter was allowed to happen.

In 1816 the author's great-great grandfather, Thomas Kearey, arrived in England to seek his fortune. He was the latest - but by no means the last - in a line of strong and resourceful men. This book is the story of the Keareys, and of their place in history through the centuries. It relates how the Ciardha ('Ciar's people') in the Ireland of the Dark Ages evolved into the modern Keareys, how holders of that name laboured, loved and fought through the centuries, and how in more recent times they were proud to fight with honour for their adopted country of Britain in two world wars. Terence Kearey has woven the carefully-researched story of what happened to his family over the centuries into the economic and social history of these islands, explaining how his ancestors coped with, and in some cases helped to change, the vicissitudes of poverty, war and economic and social change. The result is a detailed and vivid picture of a past that is quickly fading from memory.

This tale tells the author's story in the context of English history, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Born to an ordinary hard-working family which could trace its origins back to 11th century Ireland, Terence Kearey emerged from a wartime Home Counties childhood to enter the world of work at a time of upheaval, technological revolution and trade union militancy. The women in his life helped to shape it, carrying him through the trials of family life, many economic ups and downs and the occasional disaster. Now retired and at peace, Terence can look back peacefully on a turbulent, but mainly happy, seven decades.

This is the story of life in an English town and an English community as seen through the eyes of an ordinary English family - the author's own. It focuses on the years from the 1930s through to the 1960s and covers a period when the country was changing perhaps faster that it ever has before or since. From a familiar world in which life was simple and expectations modest, values were upheld and the community spirit prevailed, Britain was plunged into the chaos of war at a time when most people could all too clearly recall the horror of the preceding one. Never have the British people pulled together so strongly as they did in the war years, but with peacetime in the 1940s came unexpected challenges - economic strife, a slackening of social mores and moral codes and a new materialism. With these changes came new attitudes to work and its rewards which would greatly hamper our recovery. Terence Kearey's portrait of an England responding to the pressure of rapid social and economic change has the authority of meticulous research - yet its intimate perspective renders it far more personal and vivid than any ordinary history book.A Changing World is the third in a quartet of books by Terence Kearey dealing with aspects of life in Britain through the centuries from the perspective of his own family. The others are History, Heroism and Home, Country Ways and A Distance Travelled.

This is a story about the passage of time, from a Norman invasion to a narrowly-avoided German one. It tells of the joys and hardships of life in rural southern England through the seasons and through the centuries. It relates how a family coped with poverty and penury, and how one day in the 1930s a daughter went off to work in a mill. In due course this particular young woman went on to become a lady's maid and eventually a London suburban housewife - and the author's mother. The tale is set in and around the town of Chard in the English West Country, although many of the events described could have taken place almost anywhere in England. The family in the spotlight, the Collins family, were in the main men of the soil and women who toiled at home. Some were miners, made shoes or clay pipes, or repaired machines for the two main local industries, weaving and butter making. The lives of those men and women, and the lives of the community around them in a rural England which is now largely forgotten, are brought vividly and touchingly to life through this well-studied and meticulously-documented tale.

When Terence Kearey married for the first time in 1957 Britain was still recovering from the war years, and had further to go than anyone suspected. In the author's case, the economic pressures were exacerbated by a family which was expanding much faster than he had intended or could afford. The result was an economic and emotional downward spiral which ultimately led to the greatest crisis of his life. Finding himself fighting an emotional battle at home and an industrial one at work as he was caught up in the greed, selfishness and restrictive practices of post-war industry, he came near to emotional and financial collapse. In the 1980s, helped by friends, family and good fortune he managed to recover, remarry and rebuild his life. After adventures in Spain and England during which new friendships were forged and old hostilities buried, the author finally found peace at last. This is the story of those years. A Distance Travelled is the fourth in a quartet of books by Terence Kearey dealing with aspects of life in Britain through the centuries from the perspective of his own family. The others are History, Heroism and Home, A Changing World and Country Ways.