I had finished my second year at prep school. My brother had gone off to scout camp but I was deemed too young to join the wolf cub camp that year. Instead, I was invited to spend the first week or so of the summer holidays with a school friend, Andrew Gillingham .

I got home just long enough to pick up a case of ‘home clothes’ my mother had packed for me and Mrs Gillingham then drove me and Andrew over to their home (which wasn’t very far from ours), getting there in time for lunch.

It was a dismal day, with the rain coming down in sheets, so we boys were effectively confined to the house under instructions from Mrs Gillingham to ‘play quietly – how about a board game, perhaps?’

Well, we tried a board game or two but we were looking for something more exciting than Cluedo.

After a while, we had run out of nine-year old conversation, tried cards, dominoes – not really quite the thing. Then Andrew suggested ‘shipwrecks.

The object of this game was to go round a room without touching the floor? Well, one is supposed to take off shoes and use things like magazines on the floor as stepping stones (in the polite game) but we didn’t stop to think of that. Plenty of chairs, sofas, even a stoutish bookcase to cling to… We were having fun – very noisy fun, it has to be said.