A BROTHER
My brother, Graham, was born in November 1947. His father refused to pay maintenance. Even though she couldn't afford the fees my mother approached a well known firm of solicitors in Birkenhead, Berkson & Berkson (the firm is still in existence, specialising in family law; with a much larger team now, based in Liverpool). Mr. Berkson took on the case, which was heard at a court in Chester. Graham's father defended himself by denying paternity. My brother was only a few moths old, with large grey eyes; he was taken into the court, whereupon the judge, in his summing up, exclaimed: “You've only got to look at that child's eyes to see that this man is his father”. Case won, maintenance award made, costs charged to the father, and a few weeks later Graham's eyes changed from grey to deep brown.
I have very little memory of my early years. Most of what I know has been passed down to me by my mother. From the age of three I attended a crèche/nursery school not far away which involved a short bus journey. Mum would put me on the bus at the village bus stop and the bus conductor would make sure I got off at the bus stop near the nursery school: the journey home is a mystery to me except that on many occasions I would walk home alone, across the fields; and one day I arrived home minus my knickers, which threw Mum into a panic until I revealed that I had wet them en route so had taken them off; leaving them in the field.