This memoir of the first 53 years of my life is dedicated to those for whom it was written - my immediate and extended families, my grandchildren, my close and intimate friends, my acquaintances and colleagues
Chapter 1
I WAS BORN IN STEPNEY in the East End of London on 25th November 1919, a year after the end of World Was I. We lived in Diggon Street off Stepney Green, my parents, an elder sister Mary and I, for the first three years of my life. All I can recall of this period is having fallen and injured my forehead, thus requiring a short but delightful stay at the London Jewish Hospital nearby, during Christmas celebrations. My mother, whose doughnuts were to become my favourite throughout my lifetime, and the street sale of which provided the family with its then sole income, often told me the story of how I "got lost" at the age of three, by marching behind a brass band and ending up at some police station! It was this early introduction to music which ensured my future addiction to the muse. During the immediate years following WWI, times were hard and unemployment rife, thus placing us among the poor of those days. But as children, we were entirely unaware of any other type of existence, not yet having come across more affluent peers.