The swift march of time and the inevitable changes that occur, were the main drivers behind my decision to write about my early years growing up in the township of Croydon, in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs.

 ‘How Green Was My Valley’ is a favourite old movie of my younger days, starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Roddie McDowell, which is told through the eyes of a man looking back over his childhood in a mining town in Wales.  Shamelessly borrowing from the original title, I've tweaked it a little and called my offering ‘How Green Was My Valiant'.

This was one of the typical style of cars in which teenagers cruised around our streets, much like the youths in that other nostalgia film 'American Graffiti'.

If you’d like to read an excerpt, click here .