After an inauspicious beginning - the presiding doctor at my birth told my mother that I was the ugliest baby he had ever seen - I had a happy childhood. Being the ugliest baby in Cowdenbeath was not a great start in life; a few months later double pneumonia set in. Poultices and prayers were the treatment, while a mirror was held to my mouth to check if I was breathing. The crisis came and I emerged, still ugly but breathing. Despite parental anxieties over my health, I roamed all over our sinking mining town with my friends for what seemed like hours at a time, inhaling the spirit of a community as well as copious quantities of coal dust.
After an inauspicious beginning - the presiding doctor at my birth told my mother that I was the ugliest baby he had ever seen - I had a happy childhood. Being the ugliest baby in Cowdenbeath was not a great start in life; a few months later double pneumonia set in.
