How curious that a distinguished Guardian columnist can look back more than half-a-century to describe a little corner of heaven just off the A40 called Ruislip with the lyrical delight you might expect from Sir John Major.

Mock Tudor houses in large plots, doctors and nurses games at the bottom of the garden, model train rides in Ruislip Lido, the puzzle of Pamela the Catholic who can't come out to play, and an untamed Tarzan swinging from the trees when little girls wander in the woods to pick bluebells.

Michele is convinced – by Ruislip Library – that there won't be a nuclear war.

Having finally discovered books that aren't Reader's Digest anthologies, she finds it impossible to believe that anybody could destroy it.

There are dark forces too. Will scheming Auntie Celia inherit all Grandma's money? Will Blanche Walmesley have her way with Michele's handsome Dad? And what hope is there for a good Jewish girl who struggles to get a GCE in Modern Hebrew?

Christians might miss some of the sharpest jokes, but these memories will fascinate 'baby boomers' who probably didn't realise at the time just how lucky they were.