When Lara was twelve and her younger brother Alfie was eight, their father died in a helicopter crash. A prominent plastic surgeon and Irishman, he had honed his skills on the bomb victims of the Troubles. The family grew up accustomed to his absence; he only came to London for two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic, where he met their mother years before. They only went on one family holiday together, to Spain, where their mother cried and their father lost his temper and left early. For their father, home wasn't Earls Court; it was Belfast, where he led his other life. Narrated by Lara, nearing forty and nursing her dying mother, "All the Beggars Riding" is a heartbreaking portrait of a woman confronting her past just as she realizes that time is running out.