When I was about four or five, I remember my parents sitting me in front of an old bbc computer. It had a big black screen, and a huge white extended keyboard. I remember being struck by the stupidity of this keyboard – why did it have letters jumbled up, and not abc? Anyway, after I had figured out this stupid keyboard (before that, mum had been making me boards with pictures to press) I figured out how to write stories. Doing so seemed to please my parents.

Thus it was on an old bbc computer that I first learned to express myself. Looking back, the bbc isn’t much more than a tin can, especially compared to today’s sophisticated machines, but it stood me in good stead. It taught me that odd arrangement of letters that I still use today with my lightwriter and pc. In a way, I owe it quite a bit. It’s creators are apparently reuniting in the London’s science museum to celebrate it. I wonder if they realise what impact their creation really had.

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