WHEN I GET the urge to be elsewhere, as I sometimes do, it’s often my childhood home, Hong Kong. As I hanker for it, my mind’s eye evokes the sights, sounds and smells of the place with all the veracity of Aldous Huxley’s ‘feelies’ in Brave New World. I spent seven formative years in the former British colony, between 1963 and 1970. The family connection with the Far East dates to the 1920s, so it’s in my blood, and whenever I return it still feels like home.

At other times I long for the verdant landscape of Scotland. My mother’s family background is Scottish on both sides: her maiden name is Janet McLaren Scott and I use the surname as my middle name. I fancy I might be related to the author Sir Walter Scott, but haven’t investigated this. I don’t want to be disappointed.