My early years were consumed by my piano, which my parents bought me when I was four years old. My music teacher had me primed to become a concert pianist, but then came The Beatles, and everything changed. I still became a professional musician, but not in the classical sense……..
My later years were devoted to broadcasting as a BBC Radio Jersey presenter.
My third image is the person who, through all the long unsociable hours, often working away from home, simply kept me together and made it all possible, over many decades. And still is! Thank you, Chrissie.
The three pictures describing the brightest moments (but not all) of my life
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, in December 1987, signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in Washington, DC. It was the moment when I believed that America could be a friend. As a teenager, I was watching the live report from the United States.
A totem pole in the Sitka National Historical Park, May 2011. My dream just came true—I visited Alaska! It was my first full day there, a sunny day in the spruce forest. The place was full of air and sunshine. Sitka is a unique place. It feels like an old Russia, but… not thousands of miles away, over the ocean. And those magnificent totem poles!
The divine geometry, as my friend Sergey Vertelov put it, describing the Himalayas, April 2016. We were on a trekking trip in the Solukhumbu National Park, gazing at the majestic snow-covered mountains and walking the path among the clouds…
My Life in Three Images
For me, only one image is necessary. The explanation, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult. My birthday, the first of September, falls on the first day of school and if you were born on that day you have a choice of which year you want to start school.
I remember all this quite clearly but I not bother you with a detailed description. I was allowed, at age four, to make the most consequential decision of my life: which year should I start school. I decided to start a year early; my logic being that I would finish my education a year early. This one decision changed the entire course of my life in profound ways.
What I didn’t understand was that I would always be the youngest and smallest boy in my class. I would be the one who could not throw the ball as far or run as fast. I was always the last to be picked when choosing teams…. The other kids groaned; a sharp knife that cut and I bled inside.
Consider, if I were the oldest boy, maybe I would have been on the football team, the guy who always got the girl. But I wasn’t, instead I ran the lights at my Senior Prom. That bullied little boy still lives in me. I’m at peace with it now: I’m sensitive and better at reading those around me than they are often aware. I like me.