Tag Archives: childhood

Growing up with our grandparents

Rose & Margo, Lyme Regis

This is part II of the story of four generations preceding me and my four brothers – our parents growing up between the wars in England and somehow all ending up in the theatre. For Yvonne and David, I have written recollections. Yvonne left many – some illustrated – diary-like notes and a book, Mind Boggled. David left a stack of notebooks filled with a scribbled draft of a memoir he never finished – to his credit, he numbered the pages, books, and various inserts – in his near-illegible writing. It’s mostly theatre name-dropping and “funny stories” but parts are about his early years. A characteristic blend of gauzy generalities of an idyllic childhood and tales of David’s excellent adventures. Old newspapers add details – of piano competitions, school prizes or sports matches – plus there are stories we heard from them growing up. David’s “Progress Book”, written by Billie, and a few notes in an album by Wynne are the only accounts from the grandparents directly. Margo’s brother Harding kindly provided some childhood stories for her. I’d like to offer a sense of where they lived, went to school, what home life was like, and to sketch out their path from babies to the adults we knew.

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