“Now you are so long in the tooth ought you to adapt to a world where nothing can ever surprise you again? Should you clear out those items in your wardrobe more suited to people half your age? Absolutely not! You are as old as you feel and as young as you want to be. Your biggest and best adventures are only just starting and you haven’t come anywhere near the peak of your potential to be vibrant and sexy. The only thing that doesn't suit you is your fear of being too old.”

These words turned out to be prophetically true.

I was born on July 31st 1918 and according to my astrological chart my sign is Leo, though at the time I didn’t realize this! It wasn’t until many years later, in my fifties with interests ranging over a wide field in the alternative and spiritual arena, that I came across this reading for Leos:

When I was about 6 months old, my Father bought a new house (in fact, two houses!) for about £1700 and the family (Father, Mother, brother David (born 1915) and myself) moved to Croydon. Father later sold the second house for over a thousand pounds!

As there was no electricity at that time, my earliest recollections are of gas jet lighting, coal fires, coppers and water freezing in washbowls overnight in midwinter. This illustrates the harshness of living conditions then, compared to the comfort we take for granted in our homes now. There were the usual illnesses like measles, chicken pox and whooping cough-very very frightening which one had to survive in those days without immunization or drugs. I clearly remember the pad of chloroform held over my mouth and nose by our doctor, before the removal of my tonsils and adenoids, lying on the dining table! Life was tough in those days. I played a lot on my own as my brother David was three years older and had his friends.