Book excerpt: An adopted post war baby boomer from a Sussex council estate, Dave Spencer was born at a time when reminders of World War II still littered the 50s landscape. Nature was still bountiful, but the landed gentry were selling our heritage before conservation had teeth. His was the first television generation: weaned on the Flower Pot Men, he grew up in an increasingly commercial and libertarian society, which exploded into the colourful 60s. Ill at ease amongst former public school boys, a lurch to the left saw him taking several unsuitable apprenticeships, before a rude awakening led a confrontation with the law and a taste of life on the road. Dave took a ferry across the Mersey and a hippy hike from Cornwall to Manchester, then a final fling in Sussex led to an encounter with a longhaired milkman, in a story which mixes religion, drugs, politics and passion.