Love Changed Everything: The Power of Love shares your story of growing up and becoming the person you are today and how your love for your wife carried you through the hard moments. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I have enjoyed a comfortable life with a loving wife for many years.

I wanted my grandchildren in particular to know that I had worked very hard to get to where we are now. They have gone short of nothing – partly the grandparents’ fault – and seem to expect that life will always be as comfortable as it is. I wanted them to know where their grandparents came from.

I wanted ‘others’ to know that what I have has been hard won. I recall an event when we were living in Farnborough and our house just happened to have a swimming pool with a public path on the other side of a six-foot fence. I recall the day we were relaxing by the pool and overheard a mother talking to her daughter who had said, ‘Look, mum. Those people have a swimming pool.’

‘Yes’, the mother replied. ‘Some people are very lucky in life’.

I was incensed and ran down the gate to our property which they had to pass. ‘Good afternoon’, I said, calmly, although I did not feel calm. ‘I heard your little girl, admiring our swimming pool. I think you are teaching her the wrong lesson. Everything I own I have to work hard for. I had no rich parents to leave me any money. You should be telling her that if she puts her mind to it and works very hard at school and then works very hard at her career, then perhaps she too may be able to have a house with a swimming pool’.

There was no response, but I do hope that little girl got a little of the message I was trying to send.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

The hardest part of my story to write openly about was the sexual attraction. My wife insisted I tone it down.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

It was important to point out to teachers what an enormous influence and responsibility they carry for caring for their charges. They should never belittle a child, even a teenager. I still feel very angry about my treatment in two schools, many years apart, because of my family’s lowly financial status. In the first instance, pre-10 years old, we never went on holidays, and the class was asked to write an account. My account was fiction and was severely punished. In the second instance at Grammar School, I was belittled and had to report to the Head because I (we) could not spare two shillings and sixpence to buy a school magazine. After humiliation, if I had had ££££££’s, I would never support the school.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from your story?

Anything is possible if you work at it and take the opportunities that may come your way, even if you doubt your ability – go for it! You’ll never know if you don’t.

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