I was always interested in how things worked.

A very early memory is trying to operate a hammer so that a nail would go into the wood. I was about 3 years old. I had a wooden stool, a bag of nails and a small hammer. I spent hours and days ... indeed months ... occupying myself with this project. It was during the war, and there were no 'toys' in the shops, but this served the purpose, and I learned a useful skill in the process.

During my childhood, I became very good at taking things apart to see how they worked. I was less good at putting them back together. There is some evidence that this characteristic has lasted throughout my adult life as well.

When I was about 12 (in 1952) I was given a 35 year old Levis motorbike similar to this. Two of my cousins and myself took it apart, rebuilt it and got it going. There was a dirt road around our house and we spend hours navigating this machine round the circle. Finding parts for a motorbike this old was a challenge. I recall the tires being pneumatic, but 'bead-edged' and not used in decades ... and having problems with the vee-belt drive, the rubber was rotten and simply stripped off, and the same applied to all the potential replacement belts we found at the local garages. In any event we had a huge amount of fun ... and really felt we had accomplished something.

This is a 1935 Morris Eight convertible ... in very good condition. I was able to buy one of these in quite awful condition when I was at Cambridge. Very few students had cars ... we all had bisycles ... and a car was really something, even if it was in terrible condition. It was mechanically reasonably sound, and a coat of green paint ... bright green, not British racing green ... made it something of a stand out. During the summer term with the top down, it carried quite a crowd of students. I remember one time going over a hump bridge near Huntington with several friends sitting around the rim of the rear compartment and completely losing stearage as the front wheels became airborne. Great times .,.. we surivived.

Towards the end of the summer term I was able to trade up. I was able to exchange the 4-cylinder Morris Eight for this 6-cylinder Wolseley Hornet. The Wolseley Hornet was much more powerful twin carburetors ... a real sports car of the day, and very competitive with the MG of the time.

The Wolseley Hornet was a major step up in car prestige. One of my friends and I worked hard to have it live up to its potential ... but this turned out to be something of a disaster. When we were tuning the twin carbs something happened and a connecting rod came loose and knocked a hole the size of a watermelon in the side of the crankcase. Now what to do?

After some effort, we found an old 6 cylinder MG in a scrap yard ... purchased the engine, and then set about installing it in the Wolseley. How we did it, I do not know ... because everything was different ... but somehow we got it to work. My friend was the genius that made it happen ... I was merely a willing 'helper', but not much more.