Prologue

In the early hours of an April morning in 1950, a woman is giving birth in the delivery room at Melvesham Maternity Hospital. Melvesham is a small market town in the Cotswolds, an unremarkable place really, one of many just like it sprinkled across the English countryside. Mary Adamson is the mother in question, wife of a former RAF Squadron Leader, whom she met during the final year of World War II. They married in 1948 and this is the arrival of their first child. Her husband, Charles, has been pacing nervously for hours in the nearby waiting room. No fathers were present at a birth back then. Mary gives a final push and at last the wait is over.

‘It’s a boy, Mrs. Adamson,’ said the doctor, holding up the new-born infant and smacking him firmly on the bottom. Toby Charles Adamson, as he was to later be christened, gave a loud wail.

‘He’s got a good pair of lungs,’ observed the anaesthetist wryly.

‘Well, wouldn’t you cry if you’d been woken up that rudely at three o’clock in the morning?’ asked the staff nurse as she began to tidy up.

‘Och aye, he’s a real Wednesday’s child aw’ right,’ chuckled Sister McNab.

‘Is he ... all right?’ asked his mother hesitantly, giving breath to the question that must lurk in every new mother’s mind.

‘Aye, he’s a real bonny wee lad,’ said the nursing sister, ‘A lovely head of dark brown hair, the bluest eyes y’ever did see. Ten fingers, ten toes and he’s already quite the young man, for he has such an erection too. Take a look yersel’ he’s aw’ yours.’

So saying, she thrust the wailing infant, business end first, towards his mother.

‘Goodness, yes, so he has,’ nodded Mary Adamson, looking down at her first-born whom she cradled tenderly in her arms, ‘Is that normal?’

‘Oh yes, an erection in a newborn is not particularly unusual,’ laughed the doctor, ‘But you never know, he could turn out to be quite a handful, so good luck.’

Toby Charles was obviously not much impressed by his mother, because he continued to howl loudly.

Once home Toby’s erections continued to cause a stir. Every time his mother took his nappy off to change him he seemed to be hard. She soon realised that it generally meant that he needed a pee and would hastily cover it with a towel to avoid getting an eyeful. As he grew a little older and began to explore himself and the outside world, she noticed that when naked he always seemed to take the opportunity to grab his penis and squeeze and pull at it, often making himself go hard. As she smiled quietly to herself at the sight she wondered if the doctor could be right and that he might indeed turn out to be a handful.