MY EARLIEST MEMORIES ARE OF HAVING TWO VERY OLD PARENTS. My mother was 42 when I was born, which back then was seriously old to have a baby, and a little risky too. My oldest brother was 14 years older than me and the middle brother ten years older. When I was quite small they had both left home. I grew up almost like an only child. I tended to amuse myself and play in the garden and draw and paint and shoot. I suppose you do learn as an only child that you're going to have to get on with life and find your own physical and intellectual titillation. You're going to have to find things that excite and move you.
I felt a proper Charlie, because I was the only little boy among the Sunday school children who was wearing a kilt. On the two occasions I actually did go into the Sunday school, I was teased and felt embarrassed. I also felt rather threatened by the stories we were taught. Old-school Christianity was filled with retribution and anger that
