Past Homes

I blame encroaching dementia, but I find it hard to remember all the places I have ever lived in. Therefore I shall attempt to document these:

1. Paignton, where I was born and lived until my parents separated.

2. Combe Martin, and for a short time Ilfracombe, where my sister was born.

3. Cambridge, where my stepfather was at Uni.

4. Sutton, for a short while after my stepfather graduated.

5. Trinidad, West Indies, where the oil industry flourished, and my stepfather was a geologist.

6. Kensington, after another parental split.

7. Blackheath, where we spent several years.

8. Runfold, near Farnham, Surrey.

9. Heswall in Cheshire, when my new stepfather's company transferred to Liverpool. My brother was born here.

10. Paris, where I became an au pair and met my first husband.

11. Oxford, where my husband was at uni. And Barnes, where his family lived.

12. Algiers where my husband worked at a language school.

13. Battersea, where we lived for a short while when my husband got a job in Saudi Arabia.

14. Saudi Arabia for a short while.

15. Blackheath, when my husband worked at a language school in central London, and I became pregnant with my son.

16. Chilson, near Charlbury, Cotswolds. My son was born at the War Memorial Cottage Hospital, Chipping Norton.

17. Thorpe Bay, where my husband taught at Westcliff High School, then disappeared in the 1968 May riots in Paris. He later went back to his parents' house in Barnes.

18. Barnes, where I lived firstly with my parents, then rented a flat, where I lived with my son for a couple of years, before meeting someone else.

19. Northumberland, near Morpeth. We lived happily here until I became ill with bronchitis and pneumonia caused by a damp flat, and moved back to London with my son.

20. Found a flat in Barnes, which I later purchased, when I remarried.

21. Moved to St Margaret's Twickenham, where I bought a house.

22. Divorced and moved to Elephant & Castle, where I have been living for the past 20 years.


I do seem to have got about a bit. No wonder I can't remember it all.