I want to recount the small amounts of paid work that I did in the mid-1960s as a boy aged around 9-12 in the prosperous commuter suburb where we lived. This was about 30 miles north-west of Central London in Buckinghamshire, one of the ring of ‘Home Counties’ which surround the capital. Cleaning cars for...

I grew up in the village of Kings Langley, 20 miles north-west of London. Nowadays it is a commuter suburb of London. My father was a shy man and was devoted to his garden, and we were lucky to have a relatively large garden where he grew vegetables and soft fruit. We also had four...