Short's Stories, Ball Dropping, is the third in a series recounting, with more humor and wit, the author's life and travels. Ronan Short was born in London, England in 1940 and brought up at the British National Institute for Medical Research, where his father was in charge of the animal division.

This new volume, Three Years in America, 1963-1966, begins in the 'vast metropolis' of Dobbs Ferry, New York, near Ardsley, where Ronan first worked in the US and covers his jaunts as a young man with new American friends and fellow British ex-pats in Edgewater, NJ and New York City. He then voyages across the US and up the west coast by car, with many adventures, finally arriving in Alaska in August 1966.