Heather asked me to record an audio version of her uncle Douglas Sharpe’s “little book of reminiscences”, Wind of Dreams — as if anybody would want to listen to a Kiwi read a Londoner’s stories about his childhood, over a hundred years ago now!

Nevertheless, here it is — and here’s what it is.

Most important, it’s in no way professional. I’m recording it with $39 EarPods on my iPad with Apple’s Voice Memo software. If I can’t back up a bit to re-do a paragraph after a serious flub, what you hear is what you get. Apart from that it hasn’t been edited. I’d never read Douglas’s memoir before, and I’m recording it only once. As with the Summer of ’65 audio I made from my old diary, I want to keep my response as fresh as possible.

That’s all my excuses — apart from my execrable pronunciation of Scottish place names! I wish I could write — I wish I could remember — like Heather’s uncle.