[2000]
A DANCE THROUGH THE FIRES OF TIME
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
As explained in the Introduction, the autobiographical elements of this collection of material are intended to meet a number of objectives: for example to record, in the greatest detail possible, my own autobiography - not least as a framework for the other work. But just as important is to then use this framework to provide as complete a ‘historical’ picture as possible the work and family life of the middle classes during the second half of the twentieth century; to similarly provide a contemporary record of academic life and international consultancy, at the leading edge of change over that period; and, at a more detailed level, to provide comprehensive coverage of staff and management roles across a wide spectrum of industries at a time when these were being transformed beyond recognition. Beyond this, and bringing all the elements together, it also includes my work over the past decade, which has revolved around providing well-founded predictions, and related – more speculative (science) fictional - descriptions, of life in the decades to come; when the rate of change will be even faster.
To address these ambitious objectives, however, there needs to be a considerable amount of this material – far more than in any conventional book - indeed more than 2 million words in total, contained in more than 20 major subdivisions; with hundreds of high definition photographs. Within this overall material there are something like 800,000 words of autobiography (in 500 separate sections, as well as 200,000 words in the consolidated book form), which are supported by 1˝ million words of my previously published material (in 1,500 articles/chapters).
To aid you in finding the topics you seek, therefore, the basic biographical material is, in general, organized chronologically; though, as reported above, a more traditional ‘book-form’ version is also available. As already indicated, the autobiography is grouped under the twenty or so main headings of the subdivisions. In addition, there are also a range of separate indices and subject groups which allow you to approach the material from quite different viewpoints. Beyond even that, I hope some of you will find further routes into the material which, in turn, will show it from other perspectives. On the other hand, due to its origins in my publications, most of the supporting material is generally organized in the more traditional book/journal-chapter/section form.
The chronological aspect is most evident in the main autobiographical elements. These start by describing the middle-class factors which – for example - shaped me in my formative years:
2001 EARLY YEARS & LINEAGE – in as much as we are products of our own history, this gives the brief history of my antecedents and my own development in the first 5 years of my life:
2002 SID’S WAR
– as the only part of this compilation not written by me,
this is the wartime record written by the uncle who was so influential in my
upbringing. It indicates how his experience was typical in terms of the impact
of the war on the millions of returning soldiers who voted in the radical 1945
Labour government.
2005 POST-WAR YEARS –the defining rigours
resulting from life on rations in post-war Britain, from 1945-1950
2007 THE 1950s – followed a description of
the class-based straitjacket imposed by my middle-class home life in the 1950s,
which was typical of much of British life over the post-war decades
2006 BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL – and the public
school traditions which, very deliberately, set the pattern for my later life
and which – creating the nation’s leaders - also shaped much of Britain’s
development over the next half century
2004 FAMILY HOLIDAYS - as well as the
holidays, away from the rigours of daily life, as a family together in the
decade or so after the war which were also both typical and then atypical of
life across the nation
While at university, my pattern of life then developed in a surprising direction, and my career took off in marketing management in industry rather than as a physicist in the lab which for almost two decades had previously been my ambition:
2009 UNIVERSITY – where, contrary to my
middle-class upbringing, I developed radical political skills and revolutionary
views
2010 1960s WORK – though, returning in
part to the middle-classes, these radical ideas were less central to shaping my
work in this decade, when career building was the key aspect
2024 1960s PRIVATE LIFE – and, over the same period, my even more
conservative private life – typical of my increasingly mobile peers - paid the
price for this focus on career progression
2011 PRIVATE & PUBLIC LIFE IN THE 1970s –
though, a decade later, my career for once had become less evident, in this
period of family life, and – atypically for a potential power-broker - my
radicalism was once more renewed
2013 IBM – but, even so, my life was still
was dominated by my ‘professional’ work at IBM; then the supposedly archetypal
multinational, though my best-selling book later suggested otherwise
2014 MISFORTUNE IN THE 1980s – though even
this idyll didn’t last for ever!
2019 OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS – but we did
still cover much of the world on our holidays
2021 THE ARTS – and, to give some shape to
my private life, this section records my interest in the Arts; which, as my
major lifetime pastime, shows another side of me
The next major break was, though, in terms of moving back into an environment where – as part of my job - I could have much more radical impacts:
2015 OPEN UNIVERSITY – as was my initial
plan, this was partly in terms of the impact of my teaching on tens of thousands
of (senior) management students
2017 ETHIOPIA & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR –
but, unexpectedly as the peak of my career, I was involved (very influentially)
in international diplomacy
2016 TO RETIREMENT - and I then wended my way to the early, much earlier
than I had expected, end of my career
2020 DESTROYED IN COURT – when my nemesis
came in the form of the election of a genuinely evil opponent who, for once,
succeeded in completely destroying me
For the record, I transferred much of my personality, as well as my ideas, into two novels:
2003 LOSS & PORHYRY the novels
And above all into a description of my fundamental beliefs:
On the other hand, as I explained at the beginning, to provide some quite different perspectives on the same material you can go to:
If you prefer the traditional form of book you can see extracts of the material in this form, with each chapter dedicated to a decade:
2300 THE BOOK OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Then, as listed in the INTRODUCTION, there is the particularly large group of Future Observatory topics representing the uniquely comprehensive database - of several hundred items - which offered predictions across ‘all of human activity’; where this was to be my final academic contribution to society in general. This database is handled first of all through a hierarchy: 2023 FUTURE OBSERVATORY. However, it is also available via a tabular approach, sorted by category, where the individual items are extensively hyperlinked: 20231 HYPERLINKED FUTURE OBSERVATORY.
2012 MARKETING MATERIAL – on the other hand, my earlier academic interest, derived from my previous career, was in marketing - the staring point for looking at the future - and my writings in this field have now been read by hundreds of thousands
2018 FUTURES RESEARCH – but I later moved
on to long range planning and futurology, which – overall – represented my most
unique contribution to corporate strategy
2022 POINTS OF VIEW –even so, throughout my career, I had not stinted on the
(often unwanted) views I made available to others
[Most of this material is text-based. However, there are some autobiographical topics which are illustrated by high definition photographs. As such, they can be very large and may be slow to load.. Accordingly, each of these is also available in a text-based version- with the normal file number followed by ‘T’]
| You can discuss all this material at the Futureobservatory discussion site. The first time you contribute you will be asked to register so that you have a screen name. |
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