I am a grandfather, pensioner, retired teacher, rambler, drinker, amateur thespian, historian, political junkie and lover of rock’n roll and married to the lovely Mrs P who has never aged at all….

we are in our seventies but we still think young probably because we were both teachers and loved working with those cheerful, naive, irritating, unpredictable and endearing creatures called adolescents.

I am an Englishman living in Sussex. Five minutes walk away is one of the oldest churches in England, over one thousand years old. .. a little further is a remnant of the ancient Weald Forest that once covered all the land between the North and South Downs. It’s a beautiful place to live – but at heart I remain a city boy, a Londoner born and bred….

I have an inbuilt suspicion of anyone who claims he or she knows what is good for me. I usually distrust people with plans and schemes because, like Robbie Burns I tend to believe “that the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley.” But I do have heroes, especially people like Oliver Cromwell, Michael Faraday and Margaret Thatcher because they came from obscurity and achieved greatness through their own effort and talent. They are members of what Thomas Jefferson called the “aristocracy of nature” and their authority comes not from their social status but from who they were and what they achieved as individuals.

As for my nom de plume I call myself The Aged P because he was a character in “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. He was the father of Pip’s colleague, Wemmick, who looked after him in their little house. When my Dad got his first grey hairs he began to call himself the Aged P as a joke and predicted I too would inherit that title….lol…so here I am in my seventies surrounded by my five grandchildren who call me Grandad and ask me what was it like in the old days…I am sure they think I once marched with the Roman legions!!