Suzy and Mike arrived in London from the USA on a year’s secondment in the early 1970s. Michael is a screenwriter; Suzy worked in counselling and adult education. Escaping Nixon’s America, their fascination for the UK grew partly out of the intellectual culture they found here and the friendships that grew out of it. They were also, and remain, consistently astonished that they were able to access some of the fundamental building blocks for a secure family life through the NHS.

After living in London for no more than a year, they were suddenly and unceremoniously evicted from their apartment. Deciding that ‘no one was ever going to do that to their family again’, they bought a small house in Highgate. Their children, who spent their formative years in London, are now to be found in Italy, California and Australia. The house in Highgate is still home, and a temporary stay in London has lasted a full fifty years.