Story snippet

Brian works in our excellent local second-hand bookshop. I was in there the other day and bought a slim volume about the 60s by Jenny Diski. This prompted me to ask Brian where he was in the 60s. He told me that for one year he was in Vietnam. He had been conscripted from his home in Texas and found himself in the mobile air corps, buzzing around in helicopters. When I asked him whether he'd found himself in the front line he explained that while serving on the choppers, he jumped off one day as they were landing and his glasses fell off, got lost. At this point they moved him to an admin job because unusually he could type. It took them a long time to replace the glasses, they had to fly them in from Japan.

When Brian got back from Vietnam after the standard year (half a year for officers) there was a GI Bill which enabled him to go to university in Texas, in Austin, where he studied history. It also enabled him to come to London in 1972 to do his Masters, at LSE I think. He's been here ever since.

He also told me that he recently got his UK citizenship at a ceremony in Islington town Hall. He was impressed by the lady Mayor who helped make a real event out of it.