Calamity childhood

THE lovely story of how Paddington Bear came to be (Mail) brought back a flood of memories of my accidentprone childhood.

I thought I was the only person who had to run downstairs before the toilet finished flushing or horrible things would happen.

Aged four, I wandered out of the house and walked across the road to a building site. I went up the stairs of a halfbuilt house, fell through a gap in the planks and ended up on the ground, bruised, battered, but with no broken bones.

Cookers were an issue. I lost my eyebrows when I lit the family gas oven and it went bang. Visiting my auntie, I was fascinated when she made toast on the grill of her newfangled electric cooker.

When she was in the sitting room, I thought I’d give it a go. I stuck my hand under the element to check it was heating up. I got an electric shock from the bare wires and went flying across the room.

THOMAS TURnBULL, Askington, northumberland.