By the time it came to Douglas’ education, children were expected to find their own ways to and from primary school without being overseen by an adult, even if this did mean crossing the main road between London and Brighton during rush hour. While being sent to boarding school in mid-Sussex at the young age of seven turned out to be less treacherous than hopping in and out of traffic, it did mean that he was given free time to explore the rhododendron-covered grounds, and he used his time to wisely experiment with damming-up fresh water springs with white and blue clay. This is where he discovered what Archimedes had, some two thousand years previously.
Boarding right up to the age of seventeen, he eagerly put into practice outside of the classroom what he was being taught inside of the classroom by his teachers. Despite preferring outdoor activities, his ulterior motive for enrolling in the school choir was that it had to include girls from the local boarding school, which turned-out to be his first semi-serious contact with the fairer sex. Whilst he inherited his Father’s natural aptitude for constructing and demolishing things, he didn’t similarly develop into a great sportsman, but he did enjoy the comraderie that went with such teams. Preferring rugby or cricket over football, he opted for the shooting team so as not to get picked for the hockey side, and proudly helped win an award for the full-bore ‘eight’ at Bisley.All-the-while he absorbed what he was being taught indoors; except for Latin and quadratic equations. And chemistry. The austere environment in such a school in those days included ‘fagging’ where juniors often acted as slaves to their seniors, but by the time he became senior enough to hand-down his own orders, fagging was well on the way out.He decided that university wasn’t for him and instead chose the newly inaugurated Open University route to higher education. Coupled with that, for the next few years he tinkered with vague courses without achieving anything in particular, but he did manage to build-up a large network of very useful life-long contacts in one public house or another. He indulged himself with tours round the European capitals, a full season in the Alps where he honed his skiing skills, followed by visits to the famous motor racing circuits; all in a beaten-up Alfa Romeo. In between, he doubled-up on his jobs which had much variety but in the main he worked for a marine insurance broking firm for several years in The City, and it was here that he learned how to flatter people with the correct etiquette.
Not long after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Douglas put together his first mobile discotheque; not that the two events were linked, but it reflected an age of expansion and optimism. He worked on the principle of being paid to entertain people rather than having to pay to get into a venue to do so, and for several years he supplemented his income while enjoying life to the full. Almost inevitably he came across a motoring club and fell headlong into the world of rallying. In its heyday, it was as popular as football, so the disco scene was swopped for machinery that was more mobile. To find out more about Douglas' association with motorsport please visit his website: https://mwrt.org.uk/

Turning his back on urban dogma, he followed his father into the family business of construction, moved to the green landscape of the countryside, married and produced three children; all of whom are taller than he is now.
Around the turn of the century he took to writing as he could see this as an alternative way of expression, and with humour at the forefront of his thoughts, proceeded to expand on the characters he had come across during his travels.

He and his wife continue to live in the peace and quiet of the open countryside; ironically adjacent to a noisy Gatwick airport. He’s still constructing, albeit on a very much reduced scale, still enjoying the thrills that go with a rallying lifestyle, and hopes to live long enough to pass-on worthwhile knowledge to anyone who may be listening; or reading.