Half a century ago

In September 1962, I was spending my final fortnight with IBM in Paris. After seven months working as a computer programmer in the IBM Europe headquarters in the Cité du Retiro—a few hundred meters away from the Elysées Palace of the Général de Gaulle—I had the frustrating impression (which later turned out to be false) that I hadn't learned much French.

For the next three months, I would hitchhike around France and Spain before moving across to London for another IBM job, in the UK company's Wigmore Street headquarters. For the moment, in Paris, I must admit retrospectively that I had not yet heard the new sound that was emerging on the other side of the English Channel.

However I had vaguely sensed that lots of things were happening in London at that time. It seemed to be the place where the action was.