The seeds of my interest in Meccano began on August 27th 1940, 9 years before I was born, because that was my brother Dennis' 6th birthday, when our parents gave him his first Meccano set.

By the time I was born, Dennis was already 15, just left school and starting work and doing his apprenticeship. Then he was away doing his national service, so when he got married in 1958, I was still only 8, so don't remember ever actually "helping" him build any models.

As I never had a Meccano set of my own, my interest lay dormant for several decades, while my focus was elsewhere, music, earning a living, part time college, oh yes and getting married and raising a family! Several years ago my wife Valerie bought me a couple of old blue and yellow 1970s Meccano sets she found in a charity shop, which were put under my desk and left there.

Now Dennis is retired he can indulge himself in his hobby to his hearts content. He is a founder member of The East Anglian Meccano Set and exhibits all over the country.

When Dennis and Gill came up to Scotland to see us a few years ago after exhibiting at one of the regular exhibitions in the north of England, he had several of his models in the car, including a working Blackpool tower. Then we went down south and stayed  with them for  few days and I could see more of his models. So when I returned home I retrieved the old sets I had from under my desk and built a few models myself and with my grandchildren - see the side bar to the left.

I guess that was it, Valerie didn't know what she was starting when she innocently bought me those sets, which have now been added to mostly through e.bay and a 1950s set 8 given to me by Dennis, not specifically for my birthday, but co-incidently on my 60th.