I arrived in the world in 1962, part of a generation born on the cusp of change. I had just about got to grips with threepenny bits, sixpences and half-crowns, when it was all ditched for the decimal system. I was just getting my mind around mental arithmetic, long division and log tables when someone invented the pocket calculator. But despite these apparent advances, this was an age when modernisation was still treated with cautious suspicion, not yet as something to be harnessed for our convenience. Of course, our house was equipped with all modern devices but under no circumstances were they to be used for their intended purpose. The telep