Remembering the heat

...in South Africa, where he was sent aged 13 in 1940 to live on the Cape Peninsula with his maternal aunt and her husband on their Tokai vineyard (all long gone by the time we were old enough to be interested).

There was a war, his older brothers had all been called up, the ship had a naval escort from Liverpool to Spain because of the U-boat threat, he was leaving his mum to live on her own just outside London...and he just remembers being excited, not scared or even anxious.

The heat? He recalls the sea pools at the beaches down the hill, swimming in the irrigation tank, pushing his bike back up the long sandy road from school..