Did I read all of The Odyssey? I can't remember. It was certainly a long journey and finally, of course, the climate got colder, things got drearier, but eventually we moved round the British Isles and into the port in Liverpool – Liverpool docks. And we were all getting excited. There was going to be a band to meet us, and crowds there cheering us.  Three years abroad in the Far East! No one there. Not even the lowliest sergeant major. Just empty docks. And I've always thought that was a swindle, that they couldn't muster someone to come and welcome us. Bastards! Really, really horrid.

And so, well, we got on a train and we went back to Aldershot and there we checked out and as we left by the gate, there would be a corporal with a slate, and he would say, 'Well, now, chaps, that wasn't too bad, was it? Why don't you sign on for five and seven?' Get lost! Off we went, bought some sort of civilian clothes and dispersed to our destinies.

And England was run down and it lacked the vital electra that they had in the East. The East was buzzing, and England was awful... terribly dead. And where did I go back to? Where were my parents then? Oh, I don't know. Anyhow… oh, they were down in Barnstaple, yes, so I also went down to Barnstaple. And I couldn't bear it there. I had to get a job... I had to do something. And so, one day... I suppose after some tiff with my father, I went down to Barnstaple railway station and got on a train that came to Oxford. There's a new chapter for you. And, yes, and so in Oxford I made my living – as I still do.