This book contains John Ray’s personal life account as Principal of the Biscoe School in the heart of Srinagar between 1962 and 1986. Intended as ‘something to give leaving students’, it touches on people and events in a very different age. Hippies, chief ministers, bishops and Kashmiri people of every background crowd the stage, set against the background of a school extraordinary in its range of adventurous activities. Jyoti Sahi’s drawings picture the now vanished Kashmiri scene and Wajahat Habibullah’s sobering foreword recalls the narrative from stories of a time gone by to consideration of the harsh realities of the present.

Anyone concerned for Kashmir, or indeed for the pressures of living across cultures in today’s identity-seeking landscape, will find much interest here.