Laurie Chappel came to Marathon Farm as a boy and returned from the second World War as a man. This is his story, as told by his daughter Lyn Bodycoat. Laurie was aged 97 when this book went to publication, his story capturing the era of pioneer farming in Western Australia during the 1930s.

It is also the story of a boy who takes on the challenges and responsibilities of life as he experiences the joys and disappointments through good times, through the Depression, and through times of war as he reaches manhood. Family, for Laurie, is never far from his thoughts.