Enders: Growing up in the West End of Vancouver in the 1940S.

Colin Ruthven grew up in Vancouver’s lively West End in the years during and following World War II.

He shares stories that are humorously light and others that are stirringly dark, including what it was like growing up with a father who spent the war battling his own demons. His Aunt Helen, who served as a dietician in the Royal Canadian Army, would tell him how she nursed concentration camp survivors back to health after liberation.

The author deftly ties in stories highlighting his boyho...