The earliest clear memory I retain is of lying in my pram and pulling down and chewing the poisonous foliage of a macrocarpa tree under which the pram was parked. Hardly less vivid are other early memories of lying looking up at the sky and watching the minute, moving ripples which occur in the liquid film that covers our eyes. In bright sunshine these can often take on interesting prismatic qualities. Such occupations apart, there are not many things to do in a pram. While macrocarpa trees occupied one side of my family’s modest but pleasant garden in Kent, a…