Though others have published reminiscences of Joseph Conrad, these
accounts have frequently contained inaccuracies, sometimes even simple
fabrications. It is partly in an attempt to set the record straight that
John Conrad, the novelist's only surviving son, has committed these
memoirs to print. Mr Conrad has not tried to import into the book the
biographical interpretations or speculations of others, but rather to
recall and set down as honestly and directly as possible what he
remembers from around 1909 to the point of his father's death in 1924.
Through his vivid and detailed account of the day-to-day existence in
the various houses the family inhabited during this period, Mr Conrad is
able both to throw light on many aspects of his father's life and to
invoke the sense of an era of English social life which has now
disappeared. His memoirs are informal, often anecdotal, recording what
amused, irritated or moved his father.