Elizabeth Longford, author and biographer, only began her writing career in her fifties. Before that, she successfully combined her roles as wife of Frank Pakenham, the brilliant Labour Cabinet Minister and the future Earl of Longford, as mother of an ever growing family and as prospective parliamentary Labour candidate first for Kings Norton and then for Oxford.

These delightful memoirs, written with great warmth and charm, cover the first sixty years of Lady Longford's eventful life, ending in 1969 with her biography 'Wellington: The Years of the Sword', winning the 'Yorkshire Post' literary prize, and the tragic death of her daughter Catherine. Antonia Fraser, Elizabeth's daughter, has added a preface to acknowledge the later years of her life.