An extract from my school diary aged 9 (it was 1956 and we wrote with pens you had to dip into the inkwell). Note the attention to detail – the time was five to two, clearly a crucial piece of information. The wording suggests that I suffered from the delusion that that the teachers knew everything about butterflies, or that they were even remotely interested. Quite how I knew it was on its way to the midlands, I’m not sure. Maybe it had a ticket to Birmingham hanging from its antenna. I hope the breeding that I was doing well in referred to the butterflies.
My family say I haven’t changed, but I’m not sure they were being complimentary.
As Dany Lartigue, the French artist and butterfly enthusiast (he has a butterfly museum in St Tropez), now 90 years old and still razor sharp, said to me “Once you get into butterflies, you never get out”.