THERE'S NONE SO BLIND ...

I found a brother of mine on the Internet in December. Not just any brother I hasten to add, I have two others plus a sister, but one that I have only spoken to once, in 1981, since 1969. That's when my mother said to him, "Leave this house, and never come back". He took her at her word. All this just prior to my being sent off to be incarcerated, for 4 fucking years!, at a mixed sex Quaker boarding school in Somerset, (maybe I'll tell you all more about that another time).

Ian and I always had a difficult relationship. I'm the youngest you see, and he's the closest at 4 years older. Frankly I think I was an afterthought, tho' by no means unloved, to my parents, and he maybe thought I'd abrogated his position. He used to bully me, but looking back I teased him sometimes to make him do so to get him into trouble. We were close in many ways.

Anyway, those of you with browsers can see for yourselves at http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/. His picture looks surprisingly like me. I sent him an email, but cannot say I'm particularly amazed not to have received any reply. The wonders of the web, huh!

Sweeping generalisation time, most fans seem to be either only or eldest children. Is there a reason for this? Why do I break the pattern? Incidentally, it is Ian who probably led me into sf in the first place!

30/12/95