But there were good things about the school. I was never very good at exams, having a poor memory and finding the examination process rather artificial, and there never seemed to be enough time to follow up things that really interested me. It was a good, well-resourced school, but was very exam oriented and most of the other boys came from wealthier and more academic families which sometimes made me feel like a fish out of water. At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys. I enjoyed my time at primary school because my teachers made the world seem such an interesting place and encouraged my innate curiosity.

My life-long interest in astronomy started then and I still regularly use a telescope for astronomical observations, although very much as an amateur. Two incidents from this time that I remember, were, wondering why leaves were larger on plants growing in the shade compared with the same plants growing in sunlight, and watching Sputnik 2, the second ever artificial satellite and the first with a living cargo (a dog called Laika), as it sped across the skies of London.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science. During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky. This walk took me through a park and some rough land where I could not fail to notice the animals, insects and plants there and how they changed during the seasons. My primary school was a considerable distance from where we lived and so I had long walks, often alone, to and from school. My parents were neither wealthy nor academic, but we lived comfortably and they were always extremely supportive of my academic efforts and aspirations, both at school and university. I was by far the youngest of the family, and at times it was like being an only child. Heinz food processing factory, and my mother brought up their four children and was a part-time cleaner. After the 1930s recession they moved to Wembley, North-West London, where my father worked as a mechanic in the local H.J.

M y parents were born in Norfolk and spent their early years working in the big houses of that rural English county, my mother as a cook and my father as a handyman and chauffeur.

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