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“Wow!”
“What a man!”
“What a life!”

It was Charlotte Bradman who was uttering these exclamations to me.
And she was doing so in response to the stories that I was telling her from my Father’s life.

Each anecdote seemed to leave Charlotte more amazed than the last, and to have someone become SO fascinated with my father’s tale certainly made an impression on me.

I had met Charlotte at Ashes Lane campsite, in the Lake District, where she and her partner, Joe, were spending the summer. We struck up a friendship, and when I happened to mention that my father had invented Spirograph Charlotte was gob-smacked.

“I spent half my childhood playing with that toy!” She exclaimed. “I was obsessed with it!”

Given that interest, it was only natural that Charlotte was keen to know more about my father, and as I answered her questions and recounted some anecdotes from Dad’s life, her interest grew in leaps and bounds.

And that was when we started getting into the “Wows!”

I always knew that Dad had led a fascinating life, but to have someone become so enthralled by his story and every detail of it, made me see this even more clearly.

It wasn’t long before Charlotte had decided on the way forward:

“There just HAS to be a book about him! His story MUST be told!”

So that was how this all began, at a campsite back in autumn, 2018.

It wasn’t just Spirograph that caught Charlotte’s attention. In fact, as we continued chatting over the weeks that followed, it became my Father’s hinterland – his journey, his challenges, his successes and failures – that exerted the greatest interest for my friend.

And that wider view of Dad as a person is what interests me most about him, too.

I came to see that Charlotte was right: many people have told me how relatable Dad’s story is for them. My father wasn’t perfect, of course, but that very human-ness makes his astonishing success with Spirograph all the more intriguing.

Dad was both an exceptional man and an Everyman at the same time.

So perhaps Spirograph will be your doorway into his story, but once you enter Dad’s world you will meet a vivid, charismatic character who has so much to offer us in the way that he lived and thought.

When writing a memoir or biography, the author has to reach deep, deep into the past so they can recreate events that have long since been and gone.

I also had do that while writing this first volume of Dad’s life as it deals almost entirely with events from before I was even born.

Much of that story was a mystery to me, especially when it came to the specifics, but it was a fascinating challenge to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. For me, the most satisfying part was tracing how my Father changed during the course of his life. Dad was not the same man in his early days as the man I came to know many years later.

I realise now that this was the very last opportunity to reconstruct Dad’s story – at least with any degree of precision and depth. The people who can shed light on those times are few and far between now, and just 7 years after starting the book, many of the avenues I used then have closed off forever.

The overall question behind all of this, though, is: why bother at all? Why reach deep into the past and consider events that have been and gone? Why not let sleeping dogs lie? Dad, himself, never seemed to spend much time rehashing the past, so why should we?

For me, the answer to this was Charlotte’s utter fascination with Dad’s story. That really set me thinking, and made me see that the stories and ideas from Dad’s varied life hold a real fascination for people.

I well remember how Dad used to get me thinking deeply about life. He could certainly be a challenge, and not everyone took him on, but for those of us who did, he inspired us immensely

There is a wonderful quote by Plutarch which I use to open a chapter of my book, and it captures something of the effect that Dad had on so many people:

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but rather a fire to be kindled.”

So, this is why I reached so far into the past and recreated a story that has been and gone. There is much to gain from Dad, and I agree with Charlotte that it would be a great loss if his story disappeared without trace. Far better that he continues to live on, offering his humour and wisdom to anyone who cares to listen.

Just like Charlotte, Simon – my dear departed half-brother – also liked to use the word “Wow!” (in fact, it was his catchphrase) I hope that Dad’s story will deliver a few “wow moments” for you, too!