I am the third child of four, born in Guyana in 1963. I came to England in December of that year as a nine month old baby so I know of little else but England. Like many children of West Indian families at that time we were gathered around the major railway stations and underground networks because that was where the work was. My father worked as a porter for British Rail and my mother had successive factory jobs over the years. Unfortunately, but like so many of our contemporaries, my mother and father split up. I was about five or six and from then on my mother raised us in his absence and without the support of the Child Support Agency or any other agency that could force money out of him. He showed little interest in our upbringing save for the occasional Christmas card.
