he cut through the 21st Century Gallery, past the big plastic statues of Pluto and Mickey, animal headed gods of lost America

I was fascinated by The Lord of the Rings from about the age of eight and that lasted well into my teens.

Sometimes, on our way through the world, we meet someone who touches our heart in a way others don't.

As a child I always steered clear of science fiction, but in the autumn of 1977 the bow-wave of publicity for the first Star Wars movie had already reached me, so I was eager for anything science-fictional.

I still feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the best way to experience a story.

But we're alive, and together, and we're going to be all right.

An Engineer is no match for a Historian with his dander up!