This memoir is about a lad born illegitimate in northeast England in 1944, taken to western Ireland when five years old, brought back to England when he was nine, beaten and battered by his father throughout his teenage years calling him a bastard. He struggled to survive with memories of Ireland, his trust in his Catholic faith, the help of kind people and relatives, and his love of chemistry. His determination to read and learn, to escape, his struggle with despair, going through major crises, a growing awareness of his sexual identity under legal intolerance, taking on challenges, led him on to a prestigous university and finally migration to America.
