“An unforced, engaging and surprisingly incisive account of the disintegration of British rule in Africa.”

As a young boy,  Richard E. Grant witnessed the adultery of his mother with his father’s friend, which event triggered his keeping of a diary as a means of coping with the subsequent traumas  it caused.  In later life the diaries became published memoirs and now, a semi-autobiographical film - his directorial debut.  But it is more than a personal coming-of-age story, it is also the story of the last days of British empire in Swaziland.  The performances from established actors such as Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Julie Walters and Emily Watson are more than matched by those of its two young performers, Zac Fox and Nicholas Hoult in the central role.  Superficially light-relief, but no less meaningful, enlightening or deeply felt for all that.