ADAPTED FROM THE “INTRODUCTION” OF A STILL TO BE PUBLISHED BOOK

December 1963 saw me leaving school and coming into the real and exciting world. Gone now was the security and comradeship to be found at Kings School, Sherborne and new and unknown situations faced me. It was not altogether daunting as I was thrust headlong into the “swinging sixties” of London, where anything was possible.

School had given me an appreciation of oriental art, mainly through my closest friend, a certain Lee Chuen Pee, more conveniently known as Charlie Lee. Charlie was an interesting individual whose father in Kowloon was a director of the powerful Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. He had sent Charlie to an English boarding school with the sole intention of him learning to read, write and speak the English language. This was completely beyond Charlie who would have gained a master’s degree in pigeon English but was barely understandable to anyone else. As his mission was to pass at least one exam in English, he learned huge tracts of literature off by heart and adapted them to any exam question that came up. For instance, if he had learnt “Casius’s lament” from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, and the question was about the weather, he would liken Casius to a stormy day and to then go into a pre-learned diatribe about Casius!

Notwithstanding, Charley had things to teach me. He was a superb traditional pen and ink graphic artist. His subjects were usually epic Chinese battle scenes with hundreds of figures each individually drawn in microscopic detail and over them all, huge dragons in the sky with every single scale drawn. He had reference books that I also started copying and these were invariably warriors with great halberds and swords, their robes flowing and with grim and frightening expressions on their faces. These pictures, together with late night kung-fu lessons in the dormitory, now set me on a life-long appreciation of the alien warrior culture of the Far East.

Being of slight build but pretty fit, there were a number of sporting activities that suited me. At school I had been rather good at cross-country running, 6 miles being my best distance, but as this was mainly a device to get me out of the school grounds and past the local cigarette shop, it now lacked the urgency and appeal it once had. My position as 1st fifteen rugby captain at school, had helped secure me an advertising job in the multi-national company, Unilever (the manager who interviewed me was also a local rugby coach and was short of a scrum half. He said “if you can turn out to play on Saturday you can start work on Monday”!). The pay was only £410 per annum but it was the only job on offer and I was about to become homeless so I accepted and played scrum half on Saturday. I began playing club rugby regularly and started to learn how to manipulate and negotiate media schedules. However, with the kung-fu background the appeal to join the Unilever Judo Club was irresistible. I turned out to be quite good at judo, at one time training 5 nights per week.

My “legacy” from Kings School was an enduring appreciation of oriental graphic and martial arts (I still teach) and a respect and admiration of English literature as well as an ability to write. These latter two were due to the teaching of Peter Thomas, to whom I am eternally indebted.

Link to pictures of Clive and Charlie Lee