It was autumn 1962. Peter Cape and his family - wife Barbara, and son and daughter Christopher and Stephanie - had returned to London, to their rented flat in Stoke Newington after a two-month-long trip through the British Isles visiting historic sites, artists and craftspeople and assorted lifestyles. My father had sponsorship from the Imperial Relations Trust to do this and, as he was also a television producer with the fledgling BCNZ/NZBC, he was training with the BBC in modern production techniques, which were at the time 20 years ahead of New Zealand. We had driven 5067 miles (8154km) in a 1948 Ford Anglia, with a cage-load of pet mice, and laden with camping equipment, which we deployed nearly every night in all manner of location and circumstance. My father kept a diary recording our exploits and it is that account I am using for this column. I had turned 8 on the MS Oranje somewhere in the Pacific, on April 3, bound for Tahiti, Panama and Florida. We sailed into the developing Cuban missile crisis. We escaped to England, arriving in Southampton on April 29. Our road trip began on July 18, 1962, and we arrived back in London late on September 20. Life settled into a regular pattern with my father working with the BBC. I learned the art of playing conkers. There was schooling as well as trips to see such places as Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Stratford on Avon, Hampton Court Palace, Whipsnade Zoo, Brighton Pavilion, Kew Gardens. Diary entries were succinct and occasional. In late September we had driven from Gretna Green to Bampton and Gilsland, stopping at Willington where my father's diary again takes up the narrative ...
September 20, 1962, Thursday
Up and away by 9.30 and a fast journey to York. Photographed gates at Minster (after visiting). Had lunch and off south. Long drive on the A1. Photographed castle and barges at Newark. Barbara thinks 'loose chippings' is a place – odd name – if anyone told me there was a place called Fat Bastard Charlie here I'd believe them.
South and south. Stop in layby to cook meal on primus (which doesn't want to work) in a cold gale. (English drivers back on roads, woman tried to bully us off on a hill). Home at 11.30.
September 23, 1962, Sunday
Church
[This would probably be St Mary's Church of England, in Stoke Newington, since I was attending St Mary's primary school and my father was an ordained Anglican minister.]
September 24, 1962, Monday
Started attachments with BBC – saw filming for Tempo show.
[Tempo was an ITV contemporary arts magazine programme presented by the Earl of Harewood (director of the 1962 Edinburgh Arts Festival) that ran from 1961 to 1968. It was Independent Television's answer to the BBC's program Monitor presented by Huw Wheldon screening between 1958 and 1965. Both programs were forerunners of Aquarius and The South Bank Show.]
September 25, 1962, Tuesday
Local trip to Canterbury.