HAVE YOUR SAY
THANKS FOR WRITING TO US, WE LOVE HEARING WHAT YOU THINK
Ink-credible I was most interested to read about Louise Minchin and her daughters having tattoos on New Year's Eve (June). I, too, must have a touch of rebel in me as I had a butterfly tattoo put on the inside of my left ankle on 4 April. I am 83.
I had been thinking about having it for a few years, then visiting a local tattoo parlour to have an ear piercing, I thought I must do it.
My two granddaughters accompanied me, and my eldest one was almost having hysterics as it was being done - she thought it was so funny!
Subsequently, most of my friends have been very complimentary about it and it has caused a lot of interest among people who I know. I still love looking at it and can't wait to flash it around during the summer months!
Australian adventure
I was interested to read your article about the making of the BBC One drama Ten Pound Porns (May). It took me back to 1967 when I was in my second year at Leicester
University. As part of my degree studies, I was undertaking a small research project into how British migrants integrated into Australian society. Having contacted Australia House in London to ask for information and statistics, I was stunned to receive a telegram from the Department of Immigration inviting me to work with them for 12 weeks in Australia. While there, I visited the Nissen hut hostels to interview about 27 men, asking them to complete a questionnaire. Only one of the men was planning on returning to the UK but it's true that the conditions in the hostels were very basic and usually far from the major cities. The women especially had a tough time with no family support and their husbands away all day.
My work was a tiny snapshot and, as a young student experiencing the opportunity of a lifetime, I don't think I truly realised the full implications of the decisions these migrants had made. Perhaps they were initially a bit giddy on the excitement of the journey and only realised belatedly how far away they were from the familiar.
It remains a fantastic experience in my life, and I'd be interested to know if any other readers participated in the ESU student cultural exchange of that era.
Life Down Under
My mother's family were a microcosm of the assisted passage programme. Having survived the war, three of her four brothers emigrated to South Australia in the early 1950s under the £10 scheme. The cost and the time it took to sail to Australia back then meant she expected never to see them again. But the changes in the aviation industry enabled Mum and Dad to visit in 1982.
One of Mum's brothers had returned to England after the minimum two years in Australia. His wife never settled as she was homesick and could not tolerate the heat. I recall them describing the housing co
