Sir Michael McWilliam was born on a tea estate in Kenya in the 1930s. After education at Cheltenham and Oxford he returned to Africa, first to the Northern Rhodesia Copperbelt and then to the Kenya Treasury and he recounts some of the events and atmosphere of that vanished pre-independence world.

In his subsequent banking career, he rose to be chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank as it adapted to changes in the developing countries of Africa and Asia and also in the City, and he reflects on the transforming impact of Big Bang in 1985. On leaving the City he was appointed Director of the School of Oriental & African Studies, again at a time of wrenching change in the university sector, and was appointed KCMG upon retirement in 1996. The Commonwealth has been a lifelong interest from Oxford days and this was reflected in roles with several Commonwealth institutions.

The pressures of a demanding career had domestic repercussions and there follows a candid reflection this had on his marriage. Displacement from one's roots and the search for home has been a common experience of many in modern times, and the memoir concludes on a note of contentment on reaching safe haven in Gloucestershire.