This loss of innocence puts my own childhood traumas into perspective
I was told by someone who’d been on an intensive course of self-improvement that we need to identify three important moments in our childhoods: when we first experience fear; when we first feel we don’t fit in; and when it dawns on us that we are alone in the world. Or something like that. I’ve no idea if these things are particularly important, but I can’t stop thinking about them.
I bawled my eyes out when I was first taken to nursery school. I don’t think that was fear as such, more that I was just a bit of a wuss. Anyway, I bawled at such length and volume that my mummy was asked to come and take me away and never bring me back. This suited me.
Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist
