The risk of miscarriage is at its highest in the early stages of pregnancy and so there was a limit to the number of people I wanted to inform. However, while I may have the stoicism to hide bad news, I do not have the will to keep good news to myself. Within a few hours of the test the entire office must have known. Unfortunately it is not a family business and so while people I don't recall ever meeting were coming up to offer their congratulations, my nearest and dearest were still in the dark.
It was several days before I managed to arrange a meeting with my parents and that was at the Eagle in Cambridge. So in the same pub that Crick and Watson had announced that they had "found the secret of life" some 50 years before, I announced to the head of my family that a new generation was on its way. Their surprise seemed muted. Whether I was truly the first to tell them, I shall probably never know.
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