Now as a child I should say that... perhaps being slightly immodest, I was pretty bright. I learned to read before I was five, I had a governess who learned [sic] me to read, so by the time I went to school I could already read, I had read a number of books actually, and so I skipped a grade in school and went up quite quickly so that I left school, so-called humanities, at the age of 17, or not yet 17. And so, as I said I was pretty bright and I was pretty eager also, so I was the top of my class every year. I was really... this did not make me very popular because I was so tremendously... excited with having this brain that I could use all the time, solve problems and answer questions, and so on, so I was so eager... and the other boys at school did not particularly appreciate that... they liked to have their say from time to time. So, that's my recollection of school. I was also a very eager boy scout and as a boy scout I... I enjoyed, very much nature, I enjoyed tinkering with all kinds of things, outdoor life, sports. I was very active; I was really an active child. I think I was rather happy, on the whole, except for problems with the family fortunes and... and sometimes, not being quite popular with my schoolmates, but except for that I was rather, rather happy. Now the last point, perhaps, that I should mention, is religion. My family was Catholic, my mother in fact, had been educated as a Protestant, a Lutheran, but she had converted to Catholicism when she married my father. But among my other relatives there were Protestants, there were... in England there were Anglicans which meant they rarely went to church. And so on, so I was, again, the religious background was rather liberal. But, of course, I went to school, a Jesuit school, and I was... I was at that time, a very devout Catholic and I really felt that... being so bright I owed something to the world. I was very impressed with the... the parable of the five talents, I suppose it's called, where you know, you have to give back what you have received. And so I felt a certain responsibility, I took myself very seriously in a way, I mean it's rather terrible when I think about this, but that's the way it was.
