COVER STORY Fergus Byrne met Dr Sam Rose in Bridport, Dorset
’I
© Dr Sam Rose Photograph by Robin Mills
was born in Watford, though I don’t remember any of that as we moved to Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire when I was about two. My dad’s an academic, a geographer, and my mum was a primary school teacher in those days. She’s also a geographer and I ended up becoming one too. I played cornet in the local brass band when I was young. I remember my lips froze to the mouthpiece one winter playing carols in Leighton Buzzard town square. We moved to a village called Cublington between Leighton Buzzard and Aylesbury. So I grew up wandering the fields, exploring old barns, rivers and streams. It was great, a lovely place to grow up. I didn’t yearn for town life until my mid-teens when my mates and I started going into Aylesbury, where our school was, partly because it had a great second-hand record shop. My chemistry teacher used to run the Friars Club in Aylesbury, where Bowie and Genesis and other great bands used to play, although a little before my time. I was a bit of a muso then and played the drums in a band with friends from school. We wrote our own music and in fact two very talented band members went on to make a career out of music. It was when the eighties were in mid-flow; bad hair styles and terrible clothes, all that stuff. Strangely I had no real interest in nature at that point. I went to a grammar school which was very academically and sport focused. It you played rugby and were going to get three ‘A’s they liked you, otherwise they weren’t particularly interested. I did maths, physics and chemistry for my A levels, although at that time I was interested in ceramics and photography. However I was encouraged to pursue the sciences, and did. Then I applied for Leeds University with the idea of being a civil engineer. I first took a year out, saved money and travelled to Australia, Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine August 2022 3
