One night at about two o’clock we were all shocked awake by screams coming from the boys’ tent. Eventually, Arthur found that Stephen had been lying awake since bedtime trying to work out the internal structure of a crayfish and it had all suddenly got too much for him.

When the children were in bed the six adults would gather in one tent with plenty of blankets – put a stew on a primus as a primitive kind of central heating, and lie among the bedding solving the problems of the universe and drinking beer. Peggy had a weak head and one evening got really drunk – sat bolt upright and announced firmly ”I want to see Arthur doing all the work!” before passing out.

Peter discussed chapter headings for his book, now to be called The Rule of Three, which he decided to take from Hall and Knight’s “Algebra”. Arthur asked advice about what he should do next. He had been Chief Engineer of Cossers during the war and had been responsible for the invention of Radar, among other things, around Orford and Felixstowe, but now felt there was no future for himself in science. “It’s only a case of spending enough money and we can do anything, even control the weather”, he said, not anticipating the Chaos Theory. “The task before us is to discover how to stop mankind destroying itself.”

We suggested Chancellor of a University. “No, that’s just a figurehead! Vice-chancellor might do, but is not quite right.”

He went off for a long interview – three days – during which he had to explain why he had been an active Communist for so long. He must have been persuasive, because he came back as “Our man in charge of Safety in Mines” in Britain. At that time two men a day were being killed in the mines, most because although strip-searched and although they knew only too well the risks for explosion in a mine full of firedamp if someone lit a match, they still smuggled tobacco and matches down with them. If he could stop miners blowing themselves and their mates up he would have he would have started on the task ahead of us all.