Early Days

My nomadic life is really to do with my dad’s career. He was a Master Mariner and worked for some of the great British shipping companies. He survived the war and returned home in 1947 to become a Thames Pilot. We had moved to Gravesend and might see him once or twice a month. The river was heaving in those days, with heavy fogs and all sorts of hazards. Tugs with barges carrying paper, timber and god knows what else. The Pilot would get on board to take the vessel to wherever it needed to go on the river.