Meet the richly eccentric Burton family reigned over by the steadfast matriarch Harriet & surrounded by an equally peculiar cast of characters their exploits are narrated in alternating voices by Wag a World War I veteran & his nephew Jack But the ever-evolving London of the twentieth century is as much a character as the Burtons themselves with the narrative taking us on a journey from the Western Front to World War II through post-war 'civvy street' to the 1960s gangster era of the sadistic Richardson Gang & ultimately to the political tumult of the 1970s Drawing on his own uncle's handwritten World War I memoir & his recollection of family stories author Paul Sidey has created a seamless fusion of family history fact & inspired invention At times funny & tender at other times violent & dramatic The Book of Wag is the portrait of one family as they navigate the multi-faceted landscape of the London of another time