Amber

Amber was born in 1949 in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee in Scotland.

She was named Amber Jane Rosemary Lane. Apparently the book Forever Amber was very popular just before she gave birth, and her mother gave her the name Amber. Then after the birth she actually read the book, and was horrified to find out that that Amber was a prostitute, and so Amber was called Jane, until Amber changed it back to Amber during her teens.

Her father Frank came from a family who lived in India (Anglo-Indian would never do as it would imply a native Indian blood connection). His father was the boss of Bombay Gas. Unfortunately Frank got cancer and died on 1 Feb 1955, when Amber was only 5. He was tall and very handsome. In his 20s he was on his way to a good position promised by his father in India. As the boat called to a French port he got a cable from his younger brother in London saying he was in desperate need of help. So he abandoned his trip and went back. No-one ever knew what it was about. But his father was very cross and that was the end of that job.

Her mother was Ellen Bull, from Staffordshire. Her father ### Bull was a doctor in Great Haywood , Staffordshire, and had a reputation for helping the needy. He built a house in Great Haywood. It was eventually run as a B&B by a nice couple who had furnished it very tastefully in the Arts and Crafts style, though it had none of those furnishings originally. We used to stay in it as a B&B when going to the Curborough race track. The Bulls were good friends of the Lord Lichfield family, and often visited them at Shugborogh Hall.

Amber

1949 Born 1949

1954 Father died

1967 Art college

1969 Marries Chris Holmes

1972 Astra born

1973 University of East Anglia

1975 Chris Holmes goes to USA, then divorced

1977 Marries Guy Taylor-Smith

1977 Oak born

1979 Cass born

1979 Divorced Guy

1980 Peter

1985 Nick

2001 Gavin

Amber

She’s not crazy, but she appreciates crazy people.

"Amber rocks!" Sebastian Montenegro

Chris Holmes
Amber met Chris in about 1969 when she about 20. They went to India via Turkey (which was horrible) and Afghanistan, which was very nice, in the middle of the hippy boom, but too many people stoned out of their minds. But in India Chris took ill, and they came back. Then they got married at Sapperton, Gloucestershire, in ‘71, and her mother was horrified, and wouldn't let him into the house.

Then they enrolled at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Amber to study American Literature, with some good well-known tutors. She became pregnant and produced Astra Zoe Emma, in 1972. The college provided them with a nice flat, for free. Those were the days! Chris was not particularly faithful, and went off to America for over a year. When he returned they got divorced in ‘75. He never gave Amber and Astra a penny, though he had resources. He was a hypochondriac, and went to France, married and had a daughter. He came to London occasionally, but all he ever did was talk about himself.

Guy Taylor-Smith

She married Guy Taylor-Smith in 1979 in Norwich. Son Oak Orlando Daedalus was born in 1977, and Cassius Alaric Guy was born in 1979. He behaved badly, having various affairs. They had a broken-down house in Norfolk, and lived in a caravan for a couple of years while they did it up. They had lots of animals, ducks etc, and large dogs like salukis and deerhounds. They divorced in 1978. He persuaded Amber to sign over her share of the cottage so that he could sell it, in return for alimony. But she never saw any of it. Amber came London with the kids,

Oak and Cass rejected any contact with him.

Peter Essex Lopresti
For about 4 years she lived with Peter who was a film editor, and they got on quite well. But then he started worrying that Amber might claim to own part of his house, so she moved out.

Peter was a nice guy, even if he was a bit strange. After being a film editor, he was in Nigeria, working with some sort of school business. He somehow took up with a local girl, and they got married, but after a while they didn't get on. He still had his house in Ealing, which he had rooms rented out to various friends. He used to come to London once a year (until covid), and the she came too, and she was there, demanding money and a divorce. She had a baby (not his), was living in his house, and was saying he mistreated her. Eventually he paid her and her family a lot of money, and she disappeared back to Nigeria.

Then he moved to Cameroon, to the English part (the main part was French). He lived in a sort of hotel, doing some work. But then in about 2010 he built himself a nice house in the countryside, He wrote a book, "Nothing Pass Arrangement". He emailed me a copy, and I much enjoyed reading it, and wrote back with various suggestions. I had thought that it was a novel, but then he surprised me by saying it was all true!

By this time we were good friends, and were keeping in touch. He would get into scrapes, usually involving locals trying to scam him as a relatively rich white man, even being handcuffed in a police station. But he was well acclimatised, and appreciated and understood the various local cultures. H liked the freedom, and disliked what life was becoming in the UK. He wrote, read on the internet, smoked the odd joint, and tended his vegetables, so he is a relatively happy man.

Nick
Nick was very nice, and they had some nice trips (VW van to Greece, ski trips, etc), but he was very lazy, didn't work, and spent all his money on an old MG to have it restored. Eventually she threw him out, which was a very protracted business.

Nick's father had a mistress. Wanda's (Georges wife) father Jan was separated from his wife, and was on the Camino de Compostela to sort himself out. On the Camino he met Margaret, similarly situated. They got on, and eventually married and lived in the countryside in Mallorca. She had been married to a very rich Spanish man in Madrid, but they agreed to separate amicably.

Margaret and Jan were talking, and she mentioned that her mother's boyfriend had a son who had had a relationship with a striking tall red-haired lady who had three kids with hippy names. When Jan later talked to Wanda, and she told him about me and my relationship Amber, wham!