The Necessary Aptitude

“Ayres gives a wonderful account of what it was like to grow up poor but respectable in post-war rural England. Some of her writing in the early chapters, describing life as the youngest of six children in a council cottage in the Vale of White Horse, Berkshire, has the original freshness of classics such as Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford”

Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday

“I find her work sweet and sour, gentle and sad, and often very moving in its wistful way ... The descriptions of post-war Berkshire life in The Necessary Aptitude are wonderful ... The world Ayres evokes is Hardy's Wessex ... I do admire (and envy) this marvellous woman”

Roger Lewis, Daily Mail

“Excellent ... Unsentimental, especially about herself, Ayres gives a surprisingly moving account of what it was like to grow up poor in rural England without any "aptitude" for making something of herself”

Kathryn Hughes, Christmas Guide to a Cracking Read, Mail on Sunday

“Highly readable ... Pam's memoirs are a masterclass in effective and effervescent prose”

The Lady

“An evocation of long-gone village life as captivating as Thompson’s Lark Rise to Candleford. At the book’s height, she reaches up and touches Laurie Lee”

Buckinghamshire Life

“As funny and benevolent a memoir as you’d expect from one of Britain’s finest comic”

Good Book Guide

“It’s all so well written, so funny and so touching”

Readers' Digest

“Charming”

Choice

“Ayres gives a wonderful account of what it was like to grow up poor but respectable in post-war rural England. Some of her writing in the early chapters, describing life as the youngest of six children in a council cottage in the Vale of White Horse, Berkshire, has the original freshness of classics such as Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford”

Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday