An Intelligent Fire [antikvár]

Chapter 1The Beginning (19441956)It was on this day in 1835 that Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and philanthropist, was born. On the same date in 1881, it was the birth of the Italian Pope John XXIII. In 1926, author of Spy Catcher, Peter Wright, came into the worldwho was later to be launched on to an unsuspecting spy network. The date? November 25th.In 1944 at a hospital in Woking, Surrey, Evelyn Maud Coates gave birth to a son whom she and her husband named Gerald. I was named after my father George's brother who had died a few years previously of a mystery illness.Philanthropists, popes and spies are rarely remembered for their beginnings. It is their endings that leave the greatest impression. Most people are remembered for the last few months of their lives. But beginnings are important. At such times it is, of course, impossible to determine what a child will become. As the years progress, innocence invariably turns to at least a measure of guilt and shame. Playfulness so easily develops into ruthlessness. Dependence on others often gives way to independence of spirit, arrogant opinionatedness and a