Royal Marine School Of Music

However I persisted with this obsession and, to cut a long story short, I was duly deposited in the Royal Marine School or Music at the age of 14 where it was decreed that I should learn the piano —because I insisted upon this, and the flute—because my teeth were the right shape.

After spending a difficult three years learning how to march in step, the exhilerating and inspiring history of the Royal Marines, coupled with daily frenzied gyrations in the gymnasium and mastering the intricacies of boot polishing I managed to gain my A.R.C.M. diplomas for piano performing and teaching. In the same year I also won the Cassell prize silver medal (which I have since pawned.)