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year before the marriage. On Saturday nights there was always a dance or the pictures. On
Sundays we'd have picnics or go to Ayr beach. We became involved in various activities. Beth
belonged to the Home Hill Choral Society and sang with various choirs and at variety concerts
and Eisteddfods. She also acted. I'd watch her sing and act. Sometimes I'd play the piano when
she sang at Rotary dinners or benefits. I'd had a few girlfriends before: there were three at one
time. But after two years I decided to marry her. I proposed; I had to ask her father. We were
married at Home Hill Methodist Church on 11 May 1963 - Beth's mother was a Methodist. My
father wasn't at the wedding, but mother was there, and Lloyd. The honeymoon was at Surfers'
Paradise, at Mermaid Beach. I picked up a new car and drove us back.
'First of all we lived in a flat in Drysdale Street in Ayr. Alma had two flats there and she sold
them to me on a very low deposit and with easy payments; we lived in one and rented the other.
Then we bought a house in Wilmington Street and lived there for a year and a half. Then this
house came on the market. I'd had the offer of it a few years back when it was just a piece of
ground in Burke Street near the railway line; it was going for £750. But I couldn't afford it. A
Dutch couple bought the land and built a house. It wasn't completed when they sold it to us. It
was just a shell of a house, no cupboards or carpets. When we moved in David was one year
old. We added to the house and much later had it enlarged. We've lived here ever since.'
They had two more sons: Peter, born in October 1966; and Robert, born in September 1969.
A year after Len Honeycombe died and when the machinery business and financial matters had
stabilised, John flew to Europe for a month's holiday with Beth, Alma and Rene. They were in
London in April 1974. So was Bob Honeycombe of Charters Towers, whom I had met for the
first time on 8 March that year; having retired from the railways he was on a world tour.
393
On Monday 29 April, ten years after he first wrote to me, John and I met.
By that time I had been reading the national TV news on ITN for several years, at 5.45 and at
weekends, and was living at Primrose Hill, NW3.
I noted in my diary: 'Taxi to Regent Centre Hotel where meet up with the Australian tribe - John
+ Beth, aunts Alma and Rene, pronounced Reen, and Bob. All very pleasant. The aunts very
small, with glasses, and soft accents I have difficulty understanding. I take them to Greek-
Cypriot restaurant... Perhaps too greasy or spicy for the Aussies, but they were very game.
John has much darker hair than I'd thought, and brown eyes - Spanish colouring with English
features. All went well, and then I went to ITN.'
Two days later I wrote: 'To Bank to get out Honeycombe MSS and family trees. Back to flat.
Put out rubbish; did some shopping; drink was delivered; bought some flowers. Some showers
- bright day though. The Honeycombes were late arriving - and the strain of social conversation
and talking to five people was rather much. Explained the trees to them, showed them the wills -
these delighted John. Bob now has good idea what to do about sorting out the Australian tribe.
The aunts chatted in their curious mumbling way. Beth sparkled. All the women wore long
dresses. Dinner upstairs in the Queens, which they seemed to enjoy... Bob & aunts went off in
taxi from Queens. J&B came back to flat. He took off his jacket and sat on the floor - laughs a
lot. But she does most of the talking. They went at midnight.'
I saw John and Beth again on 24 May. We had lunch in the Queens, an Edwardian pub and my
local, together with Adam Acworth and his girlfriend, Sam. My third book, called Adam's Tale
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