On September I943 Italy concluded an Armistice with the Allies and was officially no longer fighting on the side of the Germans. But the wartime troubles of Betty di San Marzano, an Englishwoman married to an Italian and living near Spoleto, and her four children were only just beginning. In danger from both the German forces and revengeful local fascists, they had to leave their home and take refuge in a cramped loft in a tiny hamlet, and live a hand-to-mouth existence with the local peasants. Only to her eldest son could Betty explain the danger they were in: to the other children it must appear to be only a game - a game called survival. Ian Reid follows the fortunes and vicissitudes of the San Marzano family throughout the turbulent events of I943 and' 44 and tells of their often amusing, sometimes dangerous adventures helping escaped prisoners-of-war to rejoin the Allied forces, their return home only to flee again to escape the retreating German army, and the part they played in the almost farcical liberation of Spoleto. How Betty managed to keep her family together, and safe, despite the very real difficulties and dangers makes a delightful and heart-warming story.