Contents: Introduction; Daydreaming child with nice manners: 1921–1928; An intellectual snob: 1928–1940; A seminal moment: 1940–1943; What a bloody business: 1943–1945; You mustn't mind if I pay for it: music and novels 1945–1952; It ought to go off all right: music 1948–1950; I still think it isn't half bad: music 1951–1952; The home of lost corpses: novels 1947–1948; Mania for needless impostures: novels 1950–1953; A genuine unforced enthusiasm: films 1948–1962; Complicated by downright panic: films 1958–1962; Much engrossed with doom: anthologies 1954–1966; I've become an immobilist: 1950–1962; A sort of slack sabbatical: 1962–1976; A full scale replica of Chatsworth: 1962–1976; Slightly low water: 1959–1970; High time I was under new management: 1957–1976; The bonelessness of the short-distance funner: 1974–1978; Postcript; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.