English, Music and German I chose as my A Level subjects in 1994, but these subjects were there with me right from the very start of my life. In 1979 dad got a job in the then elite community of West Berlin at the height of the cold war. Berlin was then an enclave into what was Soviet East Germany. There were three air corridors and land corridors into Berlin and I believe we arrived in Berlin via the one near Hannover checkpoint Mariendorf. Here is a picture of it years later as a monument to East German culture. The bus driver stopped off with us for a meal at the local service station next door.  

This is allegedly where the Stasi first encountered me and searched my nappy for weapons, which my father really objected to and I according to family legend sat at the back of our VW Devon mumbling ‘Beast Berliners’ to myself until he went away. 

When we got there we did live in the centre of town for a while and then moved out to leafy Lichterfelde West in the old American Sector of Berlin the South West of the city on the S1 to Wannsee. We lived in a garden house near our neighbours and later also German exchange partners for many years in Berlin the von Wittichs. It was a very nice place.

In 1979 I was started in a bilingual total immersion environment for the first time. Research says that if you are exposed to different languages at the age I was then 18 months to 3 years of age it is likely that you will have an enhanced linguistic capability as this is when your brain is still connecting up. It is also creates psychological symbols in your mind and is responsible for some of the deepest emotions and a sense of the inner child. Despite being British, these deep feelings and emotions are continental and German as well as English. Mum showed me flashcards on English words and pictures and Lily my neighbour played my LPs of East German pioneer girls singing German folk music. So, my love of being this polymath and involved with English, Music and German from day one stems from this time in Berlin. It’s exceptionally important to me along with my adopted German identity. Lily was a linguist she insisted on my learning another language from the age of 18 months old and my parents got into it buying me my first picture books the Usbourne 1st thousand words in French and in German 

Despite being very happy as this bilingual toddler in Berlin and wanting to go to Kindergarten in Germany. My father persisted in me growing up an Englishman and going to a public school in my home country like him and in 1980 when the architects practise he worked for packed in we returned to the UK. The experience resulted in my having real ability in spoken language. I can have a conversation in four languages to this day and I can operate academically in German. I can write essays, and read anything without need for a dictionary.