My parents were musical, artistic expert teachers but totally devoid of engineering or scientific understanding. I can still remember my frustration as a four year old, that neither of them had been able to ride their bicycles for over a year because of punctured tyres. I enlisted the help of a neighbour who taught me how to repair the punctures, using kitchen fork handles as tyre levers.

However, they both believed that kid’s questions should be answered factually and if a child was able to ask a question they were old enough to understand the answer. If they were unable to answer technical questions, they found someone who could or found a book.

By the age of four, I had read excerpts from “A Human Biology of Sex” and partly understood how twins occurred and a family friend had also explained the workings of a motor car internal combustion engine. So my formative experiences taught me that it was always possible to find someone that “knew the answer” and that a real expert could explain most things even to a five-year-old. I also learned that most experts bluffed (or were con men) and for many years I was confused why respected adults would lie to me in answer to my questions regarding religion and Gods.

So I grew up as a “Jack of all Trades” learning that however good I was at something (reading, cricket, music, repairing bicycles) there was always someone better. This realisation overrode any ambition to be “the best”, but fuelled a passion to find out how things worked. If I was born with a talent, it is the intuition to recognise when something is wrong and the impulsiveness to correct it or search for what is right.