The Story of my Life

I was 65 in 2012, but have been semi retired for fifteen years. I am still Chairman of Roger Hyde Ltd Flooring. I grew up in Brentwood, Essex, England.

I have always served the public in one way or another and have had the good fortune to employ some wonderful people over the years in the varied work that I have been involved.

The ups and downs of all our lives can often be worth telling and most of us can relate to our experiences, and to one another. My interaction with people blessed me with opportunities to see and meet some special and unsung individuals – actually we all have – we just need to recognise them. We simply need to nurture the resonance that they exert, and learn from it.

As a school boy at the age of 12, I worked every spare day in the grocery business with several hardened men. I loved it – and learnt a lot more there than I chose to learn at Romford County Tech and so it was inevitable that poor exam results led to an office job in the bowels of the earth in London; I moved on after 3 months.

I became a second hand car salesman (selling two cars before I could drive) and was manager at the age of 18 – but I needed to work for myself.

The co-op milk round with its 430 customers provided the stable income to bring that about. I used that client base returning to clean their windows in the afternoon, and then selling potatoes in the evening.

At the run up to getting married to Doreen in 1967 I drove a taxi at weekends (she lived in Sunderland). When the boss handed me the keys to the taxi he also gave me a baseball bat saying “it’s for if the customers don’t pay.”

The cleaning seemed a better choice.

My Wife and Family

The distance of 300 miles to Sunderland meant that Doreen and I only spent 21 days together before we got married. (Being apart was not the only frustration – the journey was costly and tiresome for us both)

We successfully raised two boys who now run Roger Hyde Ltd and en route there have been plenty of ventures. We’ve built and renovated houses; the first one involved pulling down our bungalow and living in a caravan in the garden with our 2 year old son. Edward was on the way and so with Doreen getting bigger every day, it prompted the great workers on site to up their game and have the house ready in time for the second son’s appearance. They were Hillbilly days.

We bought a free house pub from Roger Whittaker, which afforded a Rolls Royce – I had never lost the love of cars (I’ve had over 60 vehicles now) including a 1936 Hillman Magnificent with only 36k recorded miles, and a Jensen Interceptor with which I towed a caravan (the only Interceptor to do so – unless you know different).

The Rest is History…

The next 33 years added encounters and incidents providing immeasurable inspiration and insight into the varied ways in which we humans deal with life.

Workers and clients have imparted so much of life’s understandings that have inspired me to write. It is possible that you may think you may recognise yourself or a friend within the stories that I so love to tell, but no actual story is told in my books where they can be attributed to a certain person. If there appears a familiar air, it is coincidental, but thankyou to all of you who have added so much enjoyment and wisdom that has afforded me the chance to create my fictitious stories.

We have been spending nearly half the year in Provence these past ten years – but someone has written about that. The contrast between there and the UK is significant, but enables us to appreciate both. I write in both places; it would be interesting to see if the style changes.

There’s plenty of material to draw on and I look forward to creating more exciting and some funny novels. Ten years in Provence must surely offer plenty.

R Henry Hyde