Early Work

A Photographic Record

When compiling Sunday's diary I came across this family photograph from 1958 which brought back to me how it felt to be seven years old.

Linda . . .

My sister was horse mad at that time and wanted to become a vet: she's now a doctor of medicine. Today Bill and I stand a head or more taller than her but I think we both still turn to her for advice on what to do in any situation.

And then, just as we did when we were boys, we generally ignore it.

. . . Bill . . .

These days Bill no longer gets cardigans passed down from his sister (note the “girls'” right-over-left buttoning) via his elder brother (yes, I too once wore that cardigan, I admit it) but he's still the youngest at heart of the three of us; in the emphasis he puts on enjoying the more laid-back pleasures in life such as ball games, barbecues and his bass guitar.

I can't help thinking that I could learn a lot from my little brother - provided that doesn't include instruction in playing bass guitar. One bass guitarist in the family is quite enough.

. . . and Me

I haven't changed much, though I didn't have the beard then; someday I'll grow out of my childhood phase, I'm sure.

Thanks to the stories my Mum told us, history was my first enthusiasm and my version of the Wars of the Roses features a cast of thousands.

Despite the regulation short-back-and-sides haircut I was obliged to wear as a schoolboy I evidently saw beard and straggly hair as the look to go for, even then.

I was soon asking 'but what came before history?' I always liked the first pages of our history book which featured cavemen, woolly rhinos and mammoths.
'FIRST WE WERE FLUG OFF THE SUN THEN JUST GASSES WE COOLED DOWN AND MOUNTAINS FORMED THEN IN THE SEA A BIT OF LIFE FORMED THEN A FISH LEARNT HOW TO CRAWL AND FORMED THE REPTILES IN ALL SHAPES!'

Here I am in August 1960 writing enthusiastically about keeping a nature diary: 'YOU ONLY NEED A PENCILS AND A NOTE BOOK (COLOURED PENCILS). ALL YOU DO IS RECORD EVERYTHING THIS IS REALY ALL THIS BOOK IS.'

No, I don't think I've changed that much!

'THE ONLY SUVIVER'

It's great still to have these early notebooks. When I got them down from the attic and browsed through them I came across a dramatically condensed version of Moby Dick.

I don't think Melville himself could have come up with such a touching ending, bringing together the strands of the yarn by having Ishmael find Captain Ahab's wooden leg floating amongst the wreckage.