The sound of guns grew louder. . . . [W]hat if the Germans were to break through and sweep over all calculations? This was a little more than Jimmie Higgins had bargained for when he entered the recruiting-office in Leesville, U.S.A.!

Another big news story of the year concerned the Ecumenical Council in Rome known as Vatican II.

The barbarian, wandering in nature's wilds, plucking the fruits as they grow, or destroying the game for his meat, and quenching his thirst with the waters of the gurgling rill, may furnish the poet with a theme for a pean to the goddess of Natural Liberty; but he will be a barbarian still, and his children after him, will roam over the same uncultivated wastes, and sleep in the same caves and dens, until they learn to associate with others and combine their efforts for mutual good.

They pass through Walsall and on to neighbouring Aldridge where they visit a former foundry that was recently converted - recycled, according to its owners - into the country's largest materials recovery facility(MRF, pronounced merf).