Introduction

I had an idea (I do sometimes)! Satellite images and maps are freely accessible on the Internet now, so why not have a look at where I live? Take it a stage further and have a look at previous addresses maybe. So I did just that, in fact I looked at all addresses I have ever lived in. One thing I hadn't allowed for though was all the memories and stories that could be associated with the various habitations.

As you will see, one thing led to another and I'm slowly working my way through my life. This will, I suppose, turn into something of an autobiography but one biased by natural remembrances rather than a studied exploration of days gone by.

The first address is not where I was actually born, I was born in Gulson Road Hospital, Coventry. By coincidence I was later to work at this hospital and my daughter was also born there.

Next door to the hospital was a Salvation Army Hostel and I don't know whether the building ever was the workhouse but my mother always got cross when I said I was born in the workhouse. It was my response to my mother's story about the advice she was given by a woman having something like her sixth child just before I was born. "Don't worry luv, it's just like having a good sh*t." I've had a complex ever since!