Ruth is a small solemn girl, growing up surrounded by elderly relatives in the 1930s - when the world was such a different place. War breaks out and the world changes around her. Love is found and lost, more than once. Ruth is torn between two beloved homes, Devon and Lincolnshire, her grandmother Mady and her dearest great-aunt Stella. Oswin is a dear father whom Ruth can never quite respect as much as she would like to. Hilde is a friend at school who becomes part of Ruth's life so unexpectedly. And then there is Bill... Family, friends, home, history... sooner or later we all come Full Circle. Betty Boyden is a retired journalist. Her previous publications include Call Back Yesterday (1975), a compilation of reminiscences to mark the centenary of her old school; The Middling Sort (1990), which covers 200 years of family history; Portrait of a Century (2006), a personal look at the twentieth century; and Devotion (2007), a sequel to Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.