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Brief Biography of Dave Taylor

[Picture of Dave Taylor]

Portrait of the Author as a young dog.

I was born in Exeter, in Devon on 7 January 1943, and first came to Bristol to study in 1961. I've been here ever since, having moved to Frenchay, just outside the Bristol city boundary, in 1971.
My parents still live in Exeter, in the Heavitree district.
My first full time employment started in 1965, as a chemist in the Research Laboratories of Imperial Tobacco. Round about the time of Prime Minister Harold Wilson's second economic crisis, I was made redundant, and after a brief but very enjoyable spell as a main frame computer operator, underwent a complete change of career.
At the Headquarters of Imperial Group in 1975, I started work in the Legal Department, in a very specialised field of the law. Unfortunately, Imperial Group was acquired by Hanson Trust in 1986, so I faced my second redundancy situation.
Due to the excellent work of the Group Personnel Department, and Imperial's high reputation for training, other employers seemed almost to be queuing up to take the unwanted staff, and everyone who wanted a job, got one.
With two other refugees from Imperial Group, I joined the Bristol office of a firm of Solicitors who were interested in opening a department in my specialist area. After about two and a half years, for various reasons, the London-based partners decided to close their office here, and I moved on once again, to the Bristol office of another firm, with whom I have worked since January 1989.
Between 1961 and 1965, as part of my studies, I worked with a variety of companies, including Lever Bros.,[Picture of Surf detergent packet] the manufacturers of soaps and detergents, at Port Sunlight, at the Guinness Brewery in London, (you can pour yourself a Guinness if you like!), with British Celanese (then part of Courtaulds) in Wrexham, and with the American company W R Grace in London.
All of these short spells involved mostly laboratory work. At British Celanese I also had a look at most of the factory departments, including Accounts, where they ran their computer on a diet of punched cards. I still have one or two of those cards!
Now read about my interests...

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Dave Taylor, Frenchay, South Gloucestershire, UK.
email: d.taylor@dial.pipex.com