This is hilarious and amazing. I have just found my father described in a book. What is most interesting is that it is about his life before World War 2, when he was married to someone who was later killed in the Blitz. He met my mother when he was a fireman, and my sister and I were born around the end of the war...but I didn't know about the previous wife until quite recently. My sister did.

I'll be updating Panto's biog page when I have gone through it a bit - just for the glimpse it gives of another time (and also 'why I am a vegetarian' etc). I think he was a bit of a 'guru', with a touch of the Leo vanity about him. I have dabbled in guru, but I come from a much more mocking and self-mocking generation. I guess my son is a bit of a 'genius', too, but he is also refreshingly funny about it.