Born in the slums of Birmingham in 1903, Kathleen Dayus was brought up in extreme and often cruel poverty. Later, left a widow while she was still in her twenties, she had to give her four children into the care of Dr Barnardos homes. It took her "eight years of troublesome work and determination" to achieve an adequate standard of living before she was allowed to have them back. In "Her People" and "Where There's Life", the author told the story of her life up to the return of her children. In "All My Days" she writes about her life in wartime Birmingham, coping with bombing, keeping her jewellery business going, and later, of her marriage and life over the last 40 years. Interspersed are heart-rending revelations of the lives of her parents and older sister.