Landing in London in early 1958, I am poised to begin living and working in the city where my parents had been born and brought up, and where they had always hoped I would end up. I am on my own, independent, with everything around me completely new, stimulating and, as I would discover, periodically challenging.

 

By the end of the first two years I had already changed jobs once and accommodation three times, moving from west to north and then to the southeast, surprisingly close to the former family turf. While my first job was a demanding one I felt uncomfortably unsuited to the particular kind of detailed approach it required and left. The next one lacked any depth or stimulation for the first couple of years but led to much more interesting experiences in the long term.

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Whatever I was doing at work, it's clear from my memories of that time that what registered most strongly with me was the varied and frequently amusing characteristics of the people I encountered. I can readily conjure up their faces and peculiarities today, as well as the circumstances in which I came to know them. Thus they dominate these four pieces about how I found my feet in London.

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