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What is the first toy which your remember from your childhood? From childhood I have always loved Egyptian art. Their figures combine elegance, sex, and mysticism so powerfully. When I was 7 my Dad bought me a 12” reproduction metal pharaoh on a throne from an antique shop. He had a nice strong chest and arms. He wasn’t really a toy and made me feel rather grown up having him. The strange thing was, years later my granddad saw this figure, looked on the back and found out from the inscription that it had been presented to a relative of his for building a dam in Egypt in the 30’s. Somehow the figure had ended up back in the family. Kind of fitted in with general Egyptian weird happenings. I also used to make primitive wooden robots and loved taking apart toy daleks to get to the little plastic record that made them speak. Was there anything that your parents didn’t want you to play with? I grew up in a house absolutely crammed to bursting point with stuff: pictures, books, old newspapers, unwatched video cassettes, punctured gum boots, rotting fruit. My Dad had several whole rooms that I wasn’t allowed into at all unless he was there. One room downstairs was devoted to his live animals: reptiles and amphibians. His attic workroom was ringed by shelves with row after row of toy soldiers and second world war kit aeroplanes. Both these places held a magnetic attraction. What did you want to be as a grown-up? I wanted to be Dr Who and I’m very glad I’m not. |
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