Appearing on Radio Oldie, the writer, singer and taste guru Nicky Haslam pondered on the effects of his childhood polio.
Nicky called himself one of the ‘pre-Salk’ generation – as in Jonas Salk (1914-95), the American who invented the polio vaccination in 1955.
Having contracted polio in 1946, aged seven, Nicky, 85, said he was pumped so full of penicillin that he’s had an in-built health defence mechanism ever since.
Confined to bed for months on end, Nicky was also confined to the company of grown-ups, he says – leading to an early understanding of the joys of sophisticated conversation.
Other pre-Salk polio toughies include the late Lord Snowdon, the late antiques dealer Christopher Gibbs and the writer and tree expert Thomas Pakenham.
Might their childhood perils have set them up to face life’s slings and arrows with rare fortitude and success?
