In this study of life on Sark, the smallest of the Channel Islands, Grace Ingoldby uses her novelist's craft to weave a surprising and detailed picture of island life since the turn of the century, using the voices of the islanders, aged from nine to ninety. Sark is a feudal kingdom, still only accessible by sea, whose 500 people have kept themselves apart from the 20th century and who now find themselves in collision with it. There are no cars, no bureacracy, no divorce, and schooling is provided only up to the age of 15. Sark's massive cliffs and its isolation, once protective, have now become a liability. The book is framed by her friendship with the oldest man on the island.