There was far more fun to be had in London, than in Birmingham, this was the period known as 'Swinging London' and London was the central attraction for all of Europe, it was where it was all happening for the young. The music (thanks to The Beatles), the fashion (mainly Mary Quant) and the mini skirt considered so outrageous (never seen before), and then Carnaby Street, or the Kings Road became so famous.

Suddenly, youngsters had freedom and fun unlike ever before! The first discos I joined were amazing, 'La Valbonne', 'The Establishment', 'The Flamingo Club', these were member only clubs, but there were so many discos opening all over London.

Then there was 'Annabels', 'The Playboy Club' and for live pop music 'The Ad Lib Club', 'The Marquee Club' and 'Ronnie Scott's. As I was known to be in the entertainment business, I was fortunate and had no problem getting into any of these private clubs. I discovered there was such exciting night life that had never existed in Birmingham. Eventually, 'The Elbow Room' opened in Birmingham, but as far as I was concerned London was the place to be.

I soon had a large circle of friends, mostly Jewish who lived around Hampstead, Hendon and Swiss Cottage, Ronnie Hendon, Jeffrey and Richard Rosenbaum, Howard Peters, Harvey Lament, Alan Josephs to name a few, this all came about through my involvement in a couple of charities. I was invited to join the Junior British O.R.T. based in North London, which I did.

All sorts of events were arranged to raise money, whilst at the same time, planned to be enjoyable and fun for our own age group. The O.R.T. charity was to help children all over the world and not restricted to Jewish children, although the committee was 100% Jewish.

I was about 19 years old at this time and I had become joint chairman with Martin Spiers of the Birmingham J.N.F. committee. It was my suggestion that both charities would benefit financially and that we all would have a much greater time if we could selectively support each other's events. So, I set out to see if the London committee would undertake to come to Birmingham for one of our events if I persuaded the J.N.F. committee to come to support one of theirs.

Everything was soon agreed, and it proved to be a considerable success, not only financially for each charity, but also socially, generally I found that these committee members were much more interesting and amusing, than found in other circles, so we all got together quite a few times, and this led to several new romances!

My London friends were such a happy lot, and we had many very funny times together. Grandpa and Grandma very kindly allowed me to invite my friends to stay in their flat in Bournemouth, we did that a few times for a long weekend, and we were very careful not to damage anything and to leave it as we found it, a cleaning lady came to change all the beds when we left.

Some became very close friends, and I went on holidays with them, Ronnie Hendon and I loved skiing and one year we went to St Moritz. Skiing in those days was rather difficult as the skis were very long and fixed only to ankle high boots, but once mastered we loved it and we had a fabulous time!

I had been skiing every year before, having joined the 'Ski Club of Great Britain' with Bernard Thomas (Bernard was an eminent physiotherapist for the England Cricket Team). Now with the newer designed knee-high boots and short skis, it is all so much easier than when we learned how to ski.

My parents threw a large party for my 21st Birthday at a hotel, and as I really wanted to have my London friends with me, I invited Ronnie to celebrate his 21st with me, as our Birthdays were quite near to each other.