DB, I can’t remember how he got the nickname but it is by that name that I remember him. I think my friendship with DB began around 1972 but I’m not sure. Our paths crossed because we lived in adjacent streets, because our parents were friends, because our siblings were at school together but I am not sure how we became best mates. DB and I shared the heart of growing, up our early teenage years, and then went our separate ways at 16 or 17. Me a traditional path, his much more fractured. Despite our friendship then my understanding of his adult life is based on sporadic family news and his very occasional visits to my parent’s house reported excitedly by my mother. A lifetime then a brief moment now. Some memories: “Round The Blocking” our expression for wandering the streets adjacent to our houses chatting , mischievous and passing time. First steps with girls, those stories for just him and me! A canal boat holiday with DB’s family, Dora’s fine cooking, a secret party in Park Avenue another at Park Drive. An attempt to make gunpowder which more or less worked. A walk in the Welsh mountains when DB lay down and told my Dad he could go no further, war comics, science fiction, tri tactics the board game, more girls and then the time we stumbled upon a hi fi shop left open by its staff only to be rewarded by the owners for alerting them. It wasn’t quite famous five rather terrible two! DB somehow got a motor scooter, I was so jealous, we took it on Hampstead Heath and rode the paths and scrub, such fun. Then he had his accident, broke his leg badly, spent what seemed like weeks in bed. I remember he told me that if he had a more powerful bike he would have been able to accelerate out of trouble. The pictures here show a happy man, the characteristic smile and cheekiness echo the way I think of him. Simon