I've often wondered how it was that I became interested in biology because there was nobody in my family who was a biologist, and I didn't have any friends who were biologists. But we lived in London for a year. And I spent every day for a walk in St James's Park, and just watched the ducks. And then, any house we rented in Onslow Square, well, Onslow Gardens, there were bird books. So I looked everything up, and had a grand time. And I walked to this museum in South Kensington, the Natural History Museum. That was heaven. They had these fantastic little exhibits, small ones, with hummingbirds in them. And the hummingbirds were all on sticks, or branches of some sort and they just looked like a little jewel, a whole box. And anyhow, I just had a wonderful time there. And I was fascinated by eggs and I got the curator of oology to show me his collection. And then, but all sorts of different kinds of wonderful bliss. And I didn't realise it, but this was really what started me.

My father, in his own peculiar way, decided that ornithology was not a kind of occupation which would give livelihood or anything of that sort. That's not true, but however that's what he thought and that I ought to do something more substantial. So he bought me, as a present, an HG Wells, GP Wells, oh no, Julian Huxley and GP Wells Science of Life, which is a huge volume, and typical HG Wells kind of organization. It was really a very good read, except that it has a whole section on mediums and tables thumping and stuff like that which seems rather quaint these days, but I didn't even read those parts. I looked at the photographs of people with ectoplasm coming out of their nose and that was my idea of all it consisted of. But anyhow, I really started to read this huge book. And my father was absolutely right. He trapped me. And he got me from birds to all of biology. And it's all due to Huxley, Wells and Wells… Huxley and Wells.