This lovely, nostalgic, beautifully observed novel tells the story of Robert Appleyard, who one day at the age of 16, just after World War Two, sets out on foot from his home in Durham to seek adventure and experience. He walks for days, sleeping under hedges, picking up casual farm work here and there. He eventually finds himself at the house of Dulcie, at Robin Hood's Bay on Englands north east coast. She is eccentric, worldly, older, and with a mysterious past. She takes Robert under her wing, introducing him to poetry, interesting food, sea swimming; and they become friends. I guess it's a coming-of-age novel, but Myers's observations of the natural world are lovely, and the story has enough unexpected twists as Dulcie's past is revealed, and by the end the reader is very fond of both characters. The end is genuinely moving.