Foreword

At the time of writing this foreword I am seventy-three years old, but you wouldn't think it to look at me. You would think I was twenty. Which, in a way, I am.

I present here a selection of memories; memories culled from diaries, notebooks, distant recollections and gentle reminders from friends and acquaintances. These memoirs are recorded here so that my story may not go forgotten. It may be that my life has been irrelevant, it may be that I have made no difference, but I believe at the very least that it has been an unusual life. I hope that somebody reading this finds it useful, that they can maybe make a better job of it than I have managed, but maybe most of all I hope that what I say is simply of interest to some.

In the interests of anonymity I have decided to disguise certain names and places - I fear retribution, although cannot easily explain why or from whom. Where possible I have tried to use real names, though, otherwise I imagine I may cause rather a lot of confusion!

I was born on November 19th 1965 into a fairly ordinary family. My Dad worked in a factory and my Mum did part-time work in a local grocery store. My upbringing was unexceptional and I was an entirely average school pupil. So these years will go undocumented, unless at a later point I suddenly remember something important from them. But I doubt that very much.

Because I'm both lazy and impatient I will write these memoirs and publish them as I go, therefore I have little idea how long they will be or how long it will take me to complete them. Hey, I may never finish them at all, who knows?

Anyway, enough of the mumbo jumbo, let's begin my tale proper. It starts a bit like this...