My father had surgery hours in the house, morning and evening, but my mother also saw private patients in the house, although most of her work was at various hospitals. My parents shared a surgery and this was a... for me, a mystical room which emitted strange lights and sometimes noises and smells. The smell, I think, was especially of iodoform which was used as an antiseptic, though my mother did have ether and chloroform in her obstetric bag. Although she had qualified as a general surgeon and went back to general surgery in the war, her favourite specialty was OBGYN – Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

If I saw a strange light coming under the door, it was because my father was a believer in ultraviolet light and the ultraviolet light emitted some violet as well. It also emitted a smell of ozone which I was very fond of, as I was very fond of the smell of iodoform.

Perhaps I should say... but now I’m going to leap ahead 65 years, 60 years, yes, 65 years... the house was sold in 1990. It was sold to the British Psychological Association. I’m going to return to this, but... and every room had been changed, but when I went into the room which had been my parents’ surgery, I smelt iodoform. I... I can’t voluntarily summon any smell, to mind. Whether this was just an involuntary association or hallucination, or whether a few molecules of iodoform had escaped the repainting and the renovation, I... I don’t know. It was similar when I went into what had been the dining room, which was now an office. When I went into the dining room I could smell red wine. The kosher red Israeli wine, I think, was called Alicante, which had been there in the sideboard for 60 years. I still smelt it. Again, I don’t know whether I imagined it or whether some... some micrograms, nanograms of wine were still surviving.