All my life I have been fascinated by people's beliefs - religious and/or political. Overall, I am much more interested in why individuals endorse specific 'doctrines' than whether those beliefs are true.

I grew up in Adelaide and discovered the books of Bertrand Russell at about the age of fourteen.  Over the years, he probably influenced my thinking more than anybody else. At 16 I went to Duntroon as a cadet – but was thrown out two years later for expressing views in support of North Korea

Back in Adelaide, I joined the Rationalist Association and for a year or so regularly addressed meetings in the park near the Botanical Gardens.  In 1951, I came to Britain, and was for a number of years active in the Communist/Trotskyist movement.  Eventually, I saw through the lies – now, for more than thirty years, I have supported, and often written for, the anarchist movement.

My childhood interests always remained.  In the 1970s I returned to Higher Education, eventually gaining a 'doctorate' in the 'psychology of the closed mind' – based on a study of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Now retired, I'm at last getting around to reading all the books I never had time to look at before. I enjoy life most of the time – and resent the fact that I'm getting old. I should write more than I do, but fundamentally I'm very lazy.

The most frustrating thing I've found about life is that I'm always spending lots of time reading and thinking and coming to conclusions – only to realize that someone else has already 'been there', made these same 'discoveries', often centuries ago, and has written it all up much more competently than I ever could. For them, I’m sure, it often came much easier than it had for me!

I'm hoping to make just one final, fleeting re-visit to Adelaide in the near future.  Meeting up with some Investigator readers would he great.

(Investigator 68, 1999 September)