Born the day Paris was liberated, in 1944, in Gosport, Hampshire, which is a Royal Navy town. Dad was away a lot in the Royal Navy, and then the Merchant Navy, so Mum was left to bring up six kids on her own, with very little money.

Times were tough for Mum, but she kept her spirits up by entertaining the troops (there are 3 different fathers in our family)! We would often go hungry, but as kids we had a wonderful time, playing in all the bombed out houses and shops. Mum was a tart, but a fabulous mother, giving us kids all the love that anybody could ever need. We usually had fleas and bedbugs, with very few clothes, but there were people even worse off than we were.

At the age of 12, I got a job chopping and bagging logs, into half hundredweight bags, and then delivering them on a Saturday morning. I loved it.

At 14 I left school, with no qualifications, or exam passes, and didn't even know the alphabet, or my mathematical times tables. At 15 I joined the Royal Navy, as had my older brother, and my older sister. After suddenly being fed on four good meals a day, I blossomed, and soaked up my Boy Seaman training, and education, for a year, often coming top of the class in examinations. I spent 12 years in the Navy, visiting around 40 different countries, and whilst I did so I studied in my spare time and gained some educational certificates.

Upon leaving the Royal Navy I went to work firstly on seismic boats (looking for oil) in the North Sea, as a navigator, for a couple of years, and secondly I worked at IBM, as a temporary assembler, prior to going to Art College, where I studied Interior and Furniture Design for four years.

I have been an Interior Designer ever since, and have worked for the Sultan of Oman, the Sultan of Brunei, George Harrison's wife, Ivan Boesky, Nina Campbell and a whole host of assorted millionaires.

My wife of 37(?) years, along with our two sons, have just about made my life not only like I'd dreamed of, as a lad, but beyond my wildest dreams.

I've never had a job I didn't enjoy, and can honestly say, through even the bad times, that I wouldn't swap lives with anybody.