'Margaret Beetham has done a wonderful thing - making the ordinary extraordinary and the extraordinary ordinary, both at once. The word "autobiography" does not feel right: this is literature and theology and feminism (among other things). It recounts a way of growing up which is too nearly forgotten, or lost in either swagger or guilt. Above all she captures that elusive seductive distorted precision of childhood memory and weaves it into a story which is both honourable and beautiful.' -- Sara Maitland * author of A Book of Silence * 'I found this book both enchanting and illuminating, providing as it does a rare insight into the lives of the children of those spreading the Gospel to foreign lands. Despite the years of separation from her parents in the cause of an English education, Margaret grows into a warm-hearted sister and mother that one can only admire.' -- Sheila Cassidy, author of Audacity to Believe