I don’t remember very much about my early childhood as we lived in
Africa – I think my very first memory is being on the back of a bike
riding through sugar cane fields. When we came back to England we stayed
with my grandparents in Surrey and then Oxford until my dad found a job
in Southampton. To start off with we lived in Britannia Flats, there was
an outside loo and no bath. So we used to have a plastic bath in the
kitchen that my mum filled with boiling water. One day I wasn’t looking
where I was going and I fell into the bath scalding my legs very badly,
I had to sleep with a fireguard holding the blankets off my legs for a
while.
Then we moved to a much nicer house with a garden but I didn’t really
like school there very much. As my birthday is at the start of September
I was about to be moved up a year where I wouldn’t have known anyone but
luckily for me we moved again to live in London (where I have lived ever
since). My new primary school was much more fun – I remember that we
made airfix models and a paper mache moon which we were going to use to
make a short animation film, we never made the film but we had a great
time making the props.
Aged 54, Male, London
July 2018
"Paper Mache Moon"