40:

I'll start at the beginning, with the Beatles - Michelle. An odd choice, you might think, but it's the first piece of popular music I'm conscious of knowing. It wasn't a new song at the time - this must have been about 1968 - but there was a girl in my infants class called Michelle, and we all sang it. It's probably also the first piece of French I ever knew, although I can't reconcile this to the holidays we had in Brittany, when I certainly picked up enough to go across the road and buy the bread every day.

It certainly predates the second Beatles song I was aware of - Yellow Submarine: we all went mad for Yellow Submarine when it came out - my friend Guy had the Dinky toy, I was green. Where are you now, Guy? Where are the rest of them - Garry and Glenn, Debra, Mrs Hutchinson - I should look on Friends Reunited, shouldn't I? Engayne Infant School, Upminster - it feels like another world now.