This is a collection of stories ranging from childhood impressions to more detailed memories from my adult life. I was born in 1936 at Chelsfield, a small village on the slope side of the North Downs in Kent. I was the youngest of six children, my siblings being, in order of seniority, Alfred (1921-1980), Betty (1925-), Gladys (1927-), Edgar (1930-) and Ronald (1933-).

Our parents were Edgar William (Will to my mother and Bill to most others) Marchant (1898-1960), who came from the neighbouring village of Pratts Bottom and Elizabeth Jane Marchant, née Wickenden (1897-2000), a native of Chelsfield.

Towards the end of 1941 we moved to Shropshire, close to Donnington in order to escape the worst of the air raids, which were hitting London and the South-East. Dad had secured a job on a farm, probably through an advertisement in Farmers' Weekly. This, unfortunately, was an ill-starred venture, mainly due to my father's ill-health. He was not very strong at the best of times, and the harsh winter was more than he could endure. We came back to Chelsfield, but not, sadly, to the house we had left three months earlier.

I lived in this area until the age of eleven, when my family moved a few miles north to Orpington. At the age of eighteen I commenced a period of two years National Service which was spent mostly in Germany. Although I was a very reluctant soldier, I learnt a great deal in those two years and I struck a rich seam of experiences ranging from the hilarious, through the mildly amusing to the downright tragic. My working life thereafter has also provided a few incidents which I hope you might find either amusing or interesting.

As for the present, I am fortunate to have a loving and supportive family, of all of whom I am inordinately proud. My wife, Susan, is employed as School Librarian at a local grammar school. She is a person of phenomonal organisational skills and prodigious memory. She and I worked together for seven years as a mobile library crew, with myself as the driver and Susan the librarian. I therefore know at first hand what extraordinary talent she has and the contribution she continues to make in her present post is enormous.

Our two children are John, 25, who is a partner in Kippertie Ltd, and is a specialist in Apple computers and video editing. He is almost entirely self-taught in his chosen profession, and yet trains, among others, university lecturers, in the use of this high-tech equipment!

Our daughter Sarah, 21, is unfortunately afflicted with achondroplasia. This, however, has not diminished her intellect in the slightest. She is self-employed as a web designer under the name Metal Monkey. She spends enormous amounts of time and effort on the website she runs, devoted to the Austrian musician, Hubert von Goisern. She also has a personal site, Dreamdust, which tells about all aspects of her life. You may judge her expertise at first hand, as she is also editor and webmistress of this site.

I also have an older son, Lee, 40, from my first marriage. He is a great friend to myself and to the rest of the family. His area of expertise is in the electronic, electrical and mechanical fields. He works as a field engineer for a French company, whose products are to be found in hospitals and research establishments.

Between us we can deal with most situations that arise in everyday life, as, besides the skills described above, I am fairly capable in the field of D.I.Y. We don’t often call on outside assistance.