Straddling the century, this colourful memoir tells of a childhood with an English rose and an English-German spy as parents, the confusions of a Dickensian schooling, coming of age in London's legendary sixties, before becoming a cave-dwelling hippy on the Greek island of Crete. We follow Shirley to exotic places where she lived and loved. Her new knowledge about men, her marriages, triumphs, and misfortunes, are laid bare. This is one woman's story of her time, but all women will see reflections of themselves.