NEVER TOO OLD

From a young age I wanted a Rolls-Royce. Growing up in Austria under the noisy Hitler dictatorship, it came as a relief when in 1945 the British occupied our region. We were shown a number of James Mason films. The inquisitive mind of a 14-year old soon found a connection with Rolls-Royce, as the quality of James Mason’s voice led me to the discovery of the British class system. Speech is a clear indicator of social standing. From then on, the Rolls also became significant. This car marked a social fixture in a system whose days are now numbered, yet this system worked reasonably well for many years. It opened the way for the young and willing to reach a higher ‘station’ through keen work.

So I took courses in English and became a compositor in the printing trade. I got married and wanted to go where they spoke English. I also wanted to get away from