Goodbye girlie is the story of Patsy Adam-Smith, a remarkably energetic and spirited woman. Patsy was raised within a boisterous working class railway family. As Patsy is reaching young adulthood, the world is emerging from the despair and privations of the Great Depression. For Patsy, as for so many young people of her generation, life's prospects are grim. At the age of 17, she Seizes upon the outbreak of war to escape her circumstances, and enlists as a volunteer nurse.
Goodbye Girlie brings together Patsy's perspectives on those things which have most shaped her life: her colourful family, her illegitimacy, her youthful experiences of war, her short-lived but devastating wartime marriage, her years spent at sea, her travels at home and abroad, and her love of writing.