NextBackThe Nineteen Forties ground to a close, bringing to an end a half century containing the two worst wars that mankind had ever inflicted upon itself. Britain adopted a 'Brave new world' attitude dusting itself off and preparing to enjoy the peace that it had fought so hard for. Progress was slow and the country was clamped in a mantle of austerity that would not lift until the early nineteen fifties. In retrospect, the immediate post war years were dreary and unglamorous and nothing epitomised that dreariness more than the grey and sluggish films produced by the British cinema industry of that time. The situation would be rectified in a few years but meanwhile Hollywood was where it was at, providing the world with fantasy and escapism which my generation embraced avidly.
The transition from adolescence into my teens necessitated a much more serious approach to education. Unfortunately I had glaring deficiencies in this department. I was incapable of. or disinterested in producing the competitiveness required by formal education and was developing a contemptuous attitude towards team sports: I was not a team player and this was certainly not the required mindset for career success, so what, if inconvenient demands were made of me I could always disappear into Fantasyland through Hollywood's ever open door.
