This, the first note in the sequence is not going to be a set of deep thoughts about my existence but a few simple facts to give others an image of the person behind these words. I do not consider myself special in any way but I believe that everyone has got something to say that is worth saying and the sad thing about life is that so few of them actually do say it. There are many ways a one page note like this could be written. I have tried to indicate some of the influences that have formed my ideas from a personal and religious point of view.

I am male, white, just 48 years old at the start of this exercise, just over six feet tall, and with a brownish complexion and hair. I am a scientist and an engineer. I am a practising member of the Church of England. My deep family roots lie in Sussex and Wiltshire but I was born in Leicester of parents that had strong associations with West London. I spent most of my childhood and youth in Bolton Lancashire where I attended Bolton County Grammar School before going to University College London to take a degree in Physics. My father died when I was 8 and my mother took over the shoe shop he ran. My father's parents moved in to look after my sister and I when my mother was out at work. My mother married Ernest when I was 15. He was an archetypal dodgy scrap dealer! My first job was in Liverpool working for Plessey Telecommunications on the designs for the first digital telephone exchanges. Two years later I accepted a job at EMI Central Research Laboratories in Hayes Middlesex (near Heathrow Airport). This is where I still work, more than 25 years later. The reason for this is not lack of ambition but the fact that I have been very lucky to be allowed to do work that is very close to the sort of things that I would chose to do if I had a free choice. My job title "Senior Staff Scientist" indicates that I fall into the wild boffin category!

I had been in Middlesex for about five years before I got married to Helen, a vicar's daughter from Bridlington. She introduced me to the Church of England. I had until that time been a lapsed Methodist. After seven years and two children, insoluble communication problems that were affecting the mental health of Helen forced separation and divorce upon us. Within a few years we had both remarried people who had similarly failed in their first attempt at marriage. Both of these marriages seem much more successful and we are all on reasonably friendly terms. Our children Mark and Jane are now 19 and 20 and at University and training for nursing respectively.

My second wife Jose was born in Scarborough and has strong associations with Leicester but spent most of her formative years in Wellington Somerset. She is a career businesswoman working in the area of commercial management. This involves negotiating and agreeing contracts and assessing and controlling the risks of large and complex projects. Among the many things we share in common is a great delight in debating all sorts of topics including religion and politics. She is currently unable to forgive the Church for all the sins that are committed in the name of religion and prefers to maintain independence. She doesn't get on with mystical mumbo jumbo either, preferring a rational, take things as they are, approach. However she does have a deep-seated feeling that there is "something behind it all". I too have misgivings about the failings of religion, particularly fundamentalism, but that does not prevent me being involved. Jose however will however nail her colours to the mast politically having strong Tory leanings but wet and dry in patches so to speak! My approach is entirely the opposite because I am the true floating voter and have voted for all the main political parties in my time

My current church involvements are quite complex. This is because although we work in the West London area and live during the week in Bracknell we both love the west country and spend as much time as possible in and around what we think of as our real home at Tiverton in Devon. Our joint passion for Wave Ski Surfing has something to do with this. I currently prefer to attend quiet early morning services. This results in me attending three churches on a moderately regular basis. It also results in me being unknown to all but a small number of people in any of them. As well as attending services I am involved with a Christian Fellowship group at work and a regular Christianity and Science group in association with my church at Bracknell.

At 56 I have now after 32 years retired from my job at CRL and taken a reduced pension early but I still contract some of my time back to them as an independent consultant. I did this with the deliberate intent of being able to put more effort into wider areas of interest that I would not expect to be paid for (including this one).

Several significant changes have taken place over the eight years since I first wrote this note. Firstly the CRL I retired from was an independent Intellectual property and research organisation. It had bought itself out of EMI although internally it still has the same innovative flair. Secondly my wife is now reasonably happy with Tony Blair's "conservative" politics and totally disillusioned by the extremist deathwish of the current Conservative Party. Finally my first wife Helen's second marriage broke down but she is now with what looks to me like a real soulmate Robert when we all met amicably at my son's wedding in January 1999.

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