Anecdotes

I was born in a mud hut, nothing strange about that, millions are born in mud huts every day. I do confess the mud hut in question was a hospital […]

My brother Trevor (five-years-old) and sister Toni short for Antoinette (six) were due to go to school in the UK. This involved us driving to Nairobi in Kenya. In those […]

The country club was the epicentre of the relatively small white community, barring wife swapping, it was the only entertainment available. When walking back to your car at night from […]

Before I continue, I need to tell you how this improbable pair met. Like many of their generation, the Second World War played its part. My father left school at […]

When my grandparents asked my mum what their future son-in-law’s family did, she replied that his father had passed away and his mother had something to do with broth-making. My […]

Mum moved to Bombay, now Mumbai, as a cipher operator with the Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service. Three things of interest happened to her there. Firstly, she was chosen for […]

The SS Orontes was the first of a dozen ships my mother sailed on. This was the start of a beautiful friendship with ships’ captains, for on every sea voyage, […]

Rationing and the in-laws keeping a close eye on mother’s reputation were putting constraints on the young wife. She was used to a richer and more carefree world, as such […]

I was still a baby when my mother decided to visit India to see my grandfather, leaving my father alone to fend off the predatory women in Dodoma. My siblings […]

During the Great War, granddad and his older brother Arthur fought against the Turks on the Mesopotamian front (now Iraq). I don’t know a great deal more about Arthur, he […]