In the summer of 1950, John and Joan Granger were enjoying a holiday at the seaside. It was Par sands, in Cornwall. The war was 5 years in the past, they’d been married for 4 years, they had a little boy and life was looking up.

Their little boy, Richard, was 3 and loved playing in the sand and paddling in the sea with his mum and dad.

Dad was obviously thinking – well, what was he thinking, I wonder?

Anyway, as luck would have it, I was born about 9 months later…

In the summer of 1951, at our bungalow in West Wickham, I seemed to be settling in.