Celebrity Snapshots: Over 100 celebrities recall a childhood moment
by Henry Buckton, BBC Children In Need Appeal
July 15, 2000
[From the author's Introduction: In this book some of our best-loved celebrities from the theatre, cinema, television and radio, recount some of their childhood memories. We also explore the infant exploits of authors, politicians, and sports personalities. There are stories from around the world, and from every possible background. The stories have been written to raise money for the BBC Children In Need Appeal, and 50% of the sale price is donated to the charity.]
Jeremy Irons
I was brought up in St. Helens on the Isle of Wight. Our house, a converted stable block, had a garden which ran down towards the Harbour. We learnt to sail in Solent Scows and had a clinker built dinghy called the 'Albatross.' When my brother got to the age of about fourteen, my father bought him a larger boat with an inboard Stuart Turner engine.
In the school holidays he would go out to the Bembridge Ledge and drop lobster pots. One day he took me; his eight year old kid brother; we towed the 'Albatross' behind us until we reached the huge buoy that marked the ledge. To this he moored the motor boat, in which I stayed, while he rowed off in the dinghy to check the pots.
The sea was rough and the big bouy roared in and out of the water, bearing its barnacled bottom to me at each surge. I was slightly nervous, just as I always am at sea, ready for anything. Suddenly, a hundred yards to my left, the sea exploded as a huge monster broke to the surface, white water cascading off its back. I certainly wasn't ready for this. It sped past me, leaving a huge bow wave and I watched with dread as its wash reached first the 'Albatross' with my fishing brother, and then me with my bouncy buoy. The submarine commander appeared not to see us, but I am sure he did. He certainly frightened a little boy as he clung on tightly while his boat rode the mountainous sea.
No lobsters that day, just a bit of growing up.