SIMON PARKER

education began. I listened to the advice of Frank Zappa, when he said: “If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.” Sadly, without qualifications, college was out of the question… so I headed to the library.

I loved books and was fortunate to grow up in a house with a lot of them. Dad in particular (93 last week and still reading novels!) was self-taught – part of that wartime generation with an appetite for borrowing books and buying inexpensive paperbacks. Our place was