The First Born [antikvár]

My Early Years When my parents were young and fell in love, my father's parents didn't approve of their son's choice. My father's parents were wealthy business people and mother's were considered working-class, but they were so much in love they" ran away to Australia and were married quietly, and then I was born in Balmain in 1913. However, when my mother and father had to return to New Zealand they were too frightened to take me. Though they had every intention of returning to get me later, they never did. Fifty-seven years elapsed before we met. At the age of three months I was left in Sydney with foster parents who had three children of their own, one boy and two girls. My foster parents were working-class and very good living. My foster father was very kind and gentle, but my foster mother was very strict with me, most likely because of the responsibility of taking care of me. From an early age I understood that I wasn't one of them, because if I was naughty I was told I'd be sent back to New Zealand. This used to frighten the very devil out of me. If I was naughty I would be given a big spoonful of castor oil from a blue bottle, and when I immediately puked it up it was spooned straight back in again. At the tomboy stage I loved playing marbles and was quite good at it. I'd sneak out the back gate and down to the corner to play with the boys and swap cigarette cards, but every time my