This is a picture of me on my fourth birthday – the first birthday cake I can remember.  I don’t remember any more until my tenth birthday when my mother ordered one from Harrods. it was a beautiful  …. train;  for boys! as all the girls at my birthday party pointed out!

Anyway, here I am in the basement flat of 43 Talgarth Road.  Picture taken by my mother as it is my father’s hairy arm on the right!  I never noticed that before.

What has always stayed in my memory though is the teapot.  Chrome and bone.  I loved that teapot. I wish I still had it now.  A classic of its time. (1957)

i am obviously very bemused by the candles.  I believe my father had to help me blow them out.  I think I must be sitting on a lot of cushions or telephone directories as even today my elbows come below the table top naturally!

The back of the photo – my father had sent it to his army friend in Poland – and made sure he knew exactly what he was receiving.  I received this copy from the friend’s son last year! My father  has written ” to blow or not to blow..” the date  iswritten twice  Why? I think maybe the top one was written by my mother originally.

There aren’t many photos from those times as I am not sure if we even had a camera.  Film was expensive and developing and printing even more so. I think this may have been a very small print, but I am not sure – about 4 x 4 cm.