Ramblings of a Rolling Stone

David E. Kemp is professor emeritus of drama at Queen’s University.

John Childs was born in England in 1928, and his recollection of his
English childhood forms the opening of this book. When World War II
broke out, he was evacuated with his mother to Canada. In keeping with
those dangerous times, he had to be fished out of the sea when the boat
he was travelling on was torpedoed.

The major portion of Ramblings of a Rolling Stone is taken up with the
author’s Canadian experiences—starting school, making new friends,
getting his first car, his first job, and (permeating everything that he
did) his deep gratitude toward the country that took him in when he
needed it the most. Childs’s career, which included stints as a
teacher and counsellor across Ontario, led to retirement in the Ottawa
Valley.

In the author’s biography at the end of the book, Childs recounts an
experience in Grade 13 when he felt he risked failing English
Literature. One of the topics for his final essay was “A Real or
Imagined War Story.” He says that he just started and the story flowed
and he received the highest English mark he had ever earned. There may
not be anything earth-shattering about these immensely readable memoirs,
but they are told with the kind of humour and insight that allows us to
see the development of the author from child to man.

At one point, we learn there was a time when Childs felt he did not
have any of the creative talents of his mother. On the evidence of this
book, he had nothing to fear.