Introduction – Part 3

I am very happily married and live in Buckinghamshire with my beautiful wife Tracy. I have three children from a previous marriage and two with Tracy, and all the children genuinely see each other as true siblings, not half-anythings. They all keep in touch with us and each other and live either in Reading (oldest son Adam, 38 years old) or Bristol (daughters Rachel, 34, Zoe, 29, Charlie, 22, and son Toby, 21). Grandchildren Lula (11), Silvo (7) and Alma (10 months) all belong to Rachel. Zoe is currently enjoying a spell in Edmonton, Canada.

This intimate family information serves to provide a living scenario to my situation as I write – that I was diagnosed about 3 weeks ago with a stomach tumour plus secondaries in liver and bone, which means that “palliative treatment” is the order of the day.

I am surprised by my own reaction to this news – one of calm and acceptance, although that doesn’t mean I don’t aim to fight on as long as possible to prove I can beat this, as well as the Hodgkin’s Disease (diagnosed in 1982) the two heart attacks (2001 and 2004) and emphysema (diagnosed 2006). You will hopefully have cottoned on to the fact that I don’t give in easily and will go down fighting if necessary and then if possible.

During the writing of this missive thus far I have got deeper into blogging, have joined one or two cancer sites and debating areas, have researched a little into the mighty plethora of cancer treatment options  and scams, have looked with interest and dismay at the battle between “alternative” and accepted therapies in the U.S.A., and have linked up with some practitioners, writers and fellow-sufferers in an attempt to disseminate the mass of information presented so glibly to cancer victims in particular, as well as the public in general.

I am learning a great deal and hope that these pages will contribute a little to the ongoing debates about this monstrous disease, as well as providing a little diversion and catharsis for the sick, the elderly (who may be living in fear of the very situation in which I find myself), the young (who should be able to avoid all this nonsense) and indeed anyone who happens to find themselves with the opportunity and desire to read it.

Introduction – Part 2

From my primary school in Mill Hill, I managed to secure a scholarship to Haberdashers’ Askes, a most marvellous traditional establishment in Cricklewood, where I enjoyed all the privileges of a public school education, except that my father’s reduced circumstances prevented me from having the clothes, books and other trappings of a privileged existence. I played rugby and cricket, attempted to swim in our chlorine-reeking indoor pool, saved pennies for the Tuck Shop and learned the “hard way” from magnificent and charismatic teachers who were in those days permitted to achieve discipline by hurling blackboard erasers dangerously and with formidable force and accuracy across the classroom. These missiles, combined with wrist-slapping and the occasional caning, ensured that we respected our elders, our teachers, our parents and the law. We were also imbued with a sense of “decency” – a word the meaning of which seems to have disappeared from our lives today.

My father needed my contribution to the family, so at the age of sixteen I left my beloved school and got a job with a London advertising agency, Arks Publicity in John Street WC1, who paid me the princely sum of £4 a week while training and also gave me day release to pursue my studies at St Martin’s School of Art. Of this I was allowed to keep ten shillings for myself – the rest appropriated by my father.

My career has since been reasonably straightforward, learning graphics at a time when every piece of type was calculated by the typographer before the typesetter would provide printed sheets of paper to be stuck in place with Cow Gum. Copied by camera, the work would be converted to blocks or plates before reproduction as advertisements or printed literature. In those days, and until the computer took the throne in all matters graphic, there were individuals whose jobs consisted of creating hand lettering, preparing text for type, cutting and pasting (literally) artwork onto artboard for the copy camera, retouching photos using an airbrush, and preparing visuals with deft strokes of the Magic Marker. These at a glance would need to provide the client with an amazingly accurate preview of the final job, as computer printouts simply didn’t exist then.

I worked in advertising agencies and studios, cutting my teeth on corporate development work and publicity projects for very large clients, including Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, EMI, General Motors, Hertz, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, The London Pavilion, London Transport, Ponds, United Biscuits and many others over a number of years.

Whilst writing this blog I am currently engaged in a number of branding and interior design commissions, as well as marketing consultancy. I  had become a Member of the (later to be Chartered) Institute of Marketing in 1976, as I felt that too many designers were creating images that looked pretty but simply didn’t work, as they were based on unsound marketing concepts.