Banstead Village

From Beechholme to Harrods

Living in Lime House, Beechholme, I remember there was a piano in a small room, the same room where the little-used telephone was kept. It looked quite new, that piano, but it was a mystery to us children for we were forbidden to play it. The austere housemother reasoned: if you don't know how to play it, leave it alone! That was back in the 1960s: little could I have known that, somehow, I would learn to 'fix' pianos and tune them at London's prestigious store, Harrods of Knightsbridge. Very occasionally, I would drive along Fir Tree Road when visiting a Surrey resident who had a tuning contract with Harrods, even as an adult I found it difficult to look across towards what was, to me, a horrendous institution. Fortunately, in my published book, The Man from Harrods, there are some rather more happier times and plenty of amusing or eccentric customers to explore...