At the age of four, because of the Easter bombings in May 1941, we

were bombed out of our beautiful home and evacuated to a farm thirty

miles north of Belfast, Northern Ireland. A year or so later, we returned

and lived in a very deprived area in the city. My father, an old soldier,

was an alcoholic who smoked in the region of a thousand cigarettes a

week, so, the cupboards were bare and family life broke down. My

mother had little or no money for food, or even necessary items. I

became something of a problem child and was convicted of theft for

stealing food. They put me in the care of an extremely tough children's

home until the age of sixteen. Because of the problems in my early

life, I never did smoke or drink and at the age of twenty-six, married

my wife and we subsequently went into fostering and did it for many

years along with our six children. We finally retired over forty-five

years later. My experiences gave me a lot of insight and I felt that I

had a story that needed to be told, that's why I wrote my book; 'So you

think you want to Foster.'