Sad and Happy Days — Michael Flynn

Sad and Happy Days is the first part of the autobiographical novel Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roach: Cedric's Story. As the title suggests, it's the story of a life buffeted by turbulence and dramatic change, this first part beginning in the drear fifties, spanning the blossoming colour, chaos and sexual liberation of the sixties, and, out of necessity, breaking off in the early seventies. It is a reflection on an individual person's life, and on the period itself and what it was that was that for better or worse was changing. It is a study of the vulnerability of innocence to corruption, with the conviction running throughout of the goodness of nature, and of human nature in particular. The content includes sexual themes from childhood and adulthood, dealing with both masturbation and pornography. The content itself, however, is not pornographic.