Catching up with the Past

Catching up with the Past is a fascinating account of Michael Windross' life. From his early childhood in Cumberland, it moves to London - where, as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, he also sang at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in the Abbey; then to Lancing College, to Cambridge, and crossing the North Sea, to Antwerp. Events follow in a linear progression - but with echoes from a distant past. In part two, the reader is transported back to Dumfriesshire in the nineteenth century and taken on a journey that retraces the family past, not only through written records but also through objects which tell their own tale. The narrative follows the now familiar path, but then shifts to Australia, Gallipoli, and, in World War II, to the Anzio beachhead - as described by the author's father Brian in letters written to Doris, his wife. The story comes full circle. This is a life well lived. The book will appeal to those who share the writer's love of the past, who have a strong sense of time and place - and are game for a bit of detective work.