Finally England and staying still for a while.

So there we were, back in England with no plans to head off abroad again. Russ bought himself a practice in Harley Street, and we rented a small house in West Wittering, way to blazes down in Sussex on the coast. So Russ was away all week, and only appeared at weekends generally, and the four of us (My mother, sister, brother and I) did our best to survive our first English winter in years. This was a time when coal was still rationed in Britain, and what coal you could get would hardly burn at all, more like simple black rocks than coal. So I have vivid memories of us crouched around the one small fireplace with two or so lumps of this useless coal smouldering in the hearth as the winter winds howled in from the sea nearby... Miserable..

Russ with his famous grin

This winter was one of those really cold ones that hit Europe in the few years after the war, and for us, coming from Singapore it was a miserable time, and the local school I went to was awful as well. It was there that it really came home to me how “local” facts really are, and how history and geography are twisted according to where one happens to be. So I was solemnly told things by our teachers about Australia, Tasmania and Singapore that I knew were untrue, but discovered rapidly that to try and correct this misinformation merely got me into trouble. So I learned to keep my mouth shut, and also to disbelieve almost anything I read in a text book or was told by any teacher. This attitude coloured more or less the rest of my school career....

I also discovered at this time that governments and the media never tell it's people the true reasons they do anything. Having lived in Singapore and having had a lot of Chinese friends I knew the true reasons underlying the nasty guerrilla war that was happening there after the war, which was totally the fault of the British government, but the English were told by all sources of information, including the BBC that it was the fault of the Chinese in China, which amazed me, and then saddened me as I realised that I couldn’t rely on anyone to tell me the truth about anything that mattered. A life long cynicism that is with me yet. Sad to become so cynical at the age of about 11 I feel.

For a number of years nothing of any great note happened in my life I suppose. My parents in desperation about my attitude to schools decided to send me to a Rudolf Steiner School, the main one in Europe, Michael Hall in Sussex, which meant moving the entire family to a new house nearish to the school – well, not so near in fact, as it meant I had a 20 minute cycle ride to get to a bus stop, followed by a 30 minute bus ride, followed by another 30 minute bus ride to the village where the school was.. oh, and then a 20 minute walk from the bus stop to the school itself... This I did twice a day for the few years I was at this school.

The school itself was staffed by a very odd collection of well intentioned but generally rather useless teachers. Funnily enough I actually rather enjoyed being there. I think it was the constant presence of classical music that one heard all the time, many concerts by truly good musicians and a generally cultured atmosphere, and the curious Germanic and absolutely pagan religion they had was fun too.. Lots of huge bonfires, folk song in German and yearly initiation ceremonies.. All very enjoyable to any normal kid.

However even in this amiable place there was one totally sadistic and loathsome teacher. He was the Latin teacher and a man that I hated (actually I still hate him) who managed to get me to remember how to decline Amo perfectly by the simple expedient of pulling me to my feet in the class by my hair, holding me by my hair and then slapping me on the face in time to my declining of Amo, Amas, Amamus and so on... Still remember how to do that, so as a teaching technique it worked.. but still...

By the way, Amo is Latin for Love........   No comment.............

About the only other thing I can recall about my time at that school was having my first kiss.... This amazing experience happened to me just as I was about to leave, a girl called Jane Underhill who I discovered had a crush on me, leaped on me and gave me a real kiss... Profoundly moving experience I can tell you.... we were about 13 or 14 I think. Kids grew up slower in those days, sexually at least.

Oh yes, I also took up the trumpet while I was there, to the total dismay of all our neighbors of course.....  But I had great fun tootling away on that thing.

Many years later, me tootling on a cornet

Also in this period my youngest sister, Mandy was born at our home near Horley.

My parents then decided to send me to a Pitman's College to cram for my O levels, as Steiner schools didn't believe in a lot of things one needed in order to study biology, which is what I wanted to study. So I stopped cycling, busing and walking and took the train every day to Croydon and stuffed my head with all manner of stuff needed for my O levels... Uneventful year in my life really.

But this change gave me a great gift.  Russ and I walked to the station every morning together, a walk of about 30 minutes, and we walked and talked.  This I loved.

Coming home at night was less fun though, as the road was in the country and very dark, and to be honest I was scared of walking down that road in the dark alone.   So to deal with my fear, I took a short Napoleonic Artillery man's sword that my real father had given me to school with me every day, and as I approached the long dark section of the walk home, I strapped it on and felt much happier.....   Try that today and see what happens!!!!!

This is that sword...  No idea why Sandy is wearing  Samurai armour thouogh

Anyway, after much struggling I managed to get the various O levels I needed to go on to A levels at Croydon technical College.

There I got on fine with Biology, Botany, but hated Chemistry and loathed Physics, and slowly found myself spending more time in the attached art school than at my A level studies.

er.......  Well Brilcream was normal in those days.. But all the same..............

So in due time I simply jumped horses and went to the art school full time and settled down to be the world's next Rembrandt.