Birth

A Memory of St Merryn.

I was born on 8 October 1939 in a house called Trewalder, at Treyarnon Bay. The house belonged to Nan and Sam Odhams and they persuaded my mother to leave London - everyone was rushing anywhere and every place once war was declared on 3 September. My father was in the TA and had already been called up. So I announced my intentions on the eve of the 7th. The others were all out at the time - but by the time they returned the midwife had arrived. I'm told that every time my mother groaned they all had another gin and shouted "cheers". Sir Peter Horlick boiled the water and the midwife was most impressed "I've never had a lord to boil me water" she said - or so I'm told. My mother stayed for about a month and then took me to my grandmother in Saltdean, Sussex ... by the sea again. Is that why I love water and particularly the crashing of waves? I was to have been called Simon if a boy and Marion if a girl ... instead my mother chose Merrin, in remembrance of the parish where I'd been born.

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