CHAPTER 1
THE HUNGRY YEARS
A storm was raging out of control and still, after four long years, the winds were as savage as when it began. The world was experiencing what would come to be known as the Great Depression. It had started on 31 October 1929, when financial markets around the globe had crashed, resulting in an international economic catastrophe. The initial impact caused thousands to go bankrupt; in turn, the ramifications of the collapse hurt millions of people. It didn’t matter where you were from or your station in life, just about everybody was affected in some way.
In England in the summer of 1933, when I was born, the consequences of this slump were as alive as if the event had just happened. The global storm had brought abject poverty. Food was now the most valuable commodity, and the country was in the grip of severe anguish.
My poor mother, Annie, must have suffered terribly during my birth. I was her fourth child and she had to endure the six-hour labour with only minimal pain relief. I came into this world on 16 July, in Islington, London, the youngest of four boys. My brothers were Ernie, then fifteen years old; Bill, seven; and Peter, who was just one year older than me.
After my birth, my parents brought me home to the Wessex Buildings in Islington, a development that housed over a thousand people.
