BRYAN Magee is an Oxford academic: a man who can turn philosophy into a joy. He is, too, a Cockney who spent his early life in Hoxton before the outbreak of war and evacuation to Sussex and then Market Harborough. His war years were spent in a kind of voy

BRYAN Magee is an Oxford academic: a man who can turn philosophy into a joy.

He is, too, a Cockney who spent his early life in Hoxton before the outbreak of war and evacuation to Sussex and then Market Harborough.

His war years were spent in a kind of voyage of discovery which really began when he passed an examination to attend grammar school and due to circumstances went to Christ's Hospital school in Sussex.

It was the right choice.

In Growing Up in a War he gives a delightful account of those years which did much to shape his future.

This is not so much an autobiography as a piece of detailed, brilliant writings about those dark years.

It takes Magee through his school years to gaining a place at Keble and then National Service with the School of Military Intelligence.