Both my parents were heavy smokers and big beer drinkers. So although I didn't smoke my first cigarette until it was 19, I was already full of nicotine. Our wallpaper was always yellowish brown, and my parents would do their own decorating every year. You could always see where everything had been against a wall. Because when it was moved, you could see a clean patch of unmarked paper or paint.

In them days everybody seemed to smoke and the air was full of chimney and factory smoke as well. Thick smoke was a regular occurrence. All the buildings were black with soot. Everybody had coal fires.