Switchblades, Slow Dances, and Teenage Rebellion

An Excerpt From My Memoirs

With Elvis Presley as my idol, I became fascinated with teddy boys and American teenage gangs. I read surreptitiously all kinds of “bad books,” such as “Blackboard Jungle,” “Gang Girl,” etc. I carried a switchblade knife and tried in vain to grow sideburns.

My tutor, Eric Siepman, grew understandably concerned when he discovered that I had also collected numerous newspaper clippings concerning the wild odyssey of an American desperado and his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, which resulted in the death of thirteen people.

My switchblade knife was confiscated, but I nevertheless retained a foot-long hunting knife and horrified local people as I paraded with the bloody head of a fox that Ronnie and I had savagely massacred, tied to my saddle.

However, my cruel and violent instincts were to some extent transmuted by exercise, farm work, and study.