Currently reading Seeing Things by Oliver Postgate. The most gripping autobiography I have ever read. It’s my second time reading it and I’d forgotten how gripping it is.

He went to school in Dartington – I’ve been to the summer music school there and on trade union courses there.

His parents were part of the Bloomsbury set, and his grandfather was George Lansbury, a well known and popular Labour politician, which was interesting. They went on a cycling holiday in France in 1938 and saw many of the landscapes painted by the Impressionists (especially Sisley, who’s my favourite Impressionist). In the summer of 1938, the exchange rate was 1750 francs to the pound— it must have been because of the massive inflation at the time.

And I haven’t even got to the section on Smallfilms yet!

During the war, Oliver Postgate was a conscientious objector (so were both my grandfathers).

Later in the book (I remember from my previous reading of it), he has one of those experiences where everything is illuminated — I’ve had a couple of those.

Also from reading it, you get the sense that Oliver Postgate was just as nice as you think from watching Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, the Clangers, and Ivor the Engine. (If anyone reading this doesn’t know what those are: get thee to YouTube and watch them!)

I was friends with his wife Naomi online some time back and she was lovely too.