I was born in 1935 in flat 101 at Grosvenor House in Park Lane, where I lived until 1954, except for the war years. At the same time the family had a country house by the seaside called Ladymead in West Whittering on the Sussex coast.

At the beginning of the war we moved to The Dower House at the top of Gold Hill in Chalfont St Peters, and toward the end of the war moved to Dormers in Gerrards Cross.

After the war, my family had had enough of living in the countryside and so returned to Grosvenor House. Of course, I had a few more years of country living at my boarding school, Stowe, in Buckinghamshire.

I drifted for a few years. Two years in Toronto, one year in Montego Bay, Jamaica, followed by one year in Dublin.

Lived in Montreal for four years (1958 to 1961) while at McGill University, followed by one year in New England at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The livingroom window of the flat in Montreal was overlooked by the building next door, so I didn't open the curtains for four years.

The flat in New England was very special. Several miles out of town, a large Victorian house set in 35 acres of woodland bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The house, which had a clock tower and large central courtyard accessed through an archway, had been converted into eleven apartments. Apart from myself and the owner, the remaining nine flats were occupied by military personel from the nearby air base.

Then I moved into my father's flat at 48 Grosvenor Square, where I lived from 1962 to 1967, except for one year in Leeds in Yorkshire.

After my parents divorce, my mother lived in Denham, Buckinghamshire, and my father shared a house, Hills End in Sunningdale, Berkshire, with his brother Isidore.

Eventually my father gave up his flat in Grosvenor Square, and shared a flat with his brother on La Croisette in Cannes, south of France. For the remainder of their lives, they migrated seasonally, spending the summer at Hills End and the winter in Cannes.

I lived in my mother's house at Denham for one year until I got my own house in Spear Mews, Earl's Court in London, where I lived from 1971 to 1981. The mews house was great, except it was so small, had no garden, and with a flat tarred-roof was unbearably hot in summer. So I moved to Chiswick, into the biggest house possible, with windows on three sides and lots of air (albeit polluted) blowing through it.