The Small Rains Down Do Rain

Here I am in the UK in the autumn of 1980. I’m in Greenwich doing research for the Privateer books, and I’m standing in front of the clipper ship Cutty Sark. I seem to be an older and more weathered person than I remember.

I seem to attract extreme weather whenever I visit Britain, and 1980 was no exception. The wool cap and bomber jacket were inadequate for the freezing weather, which usually included freezing rain.

From Britain I went to Germany to visit friends, and from there I ...