My speech is entitled “My Long Lost Family”. Briefly, this is nothing like the tv series of the same name. I was adopted at the age of 4, but only learned of this & my mysterious birth mother’s name by accident when I was 8. Having had a not very happy childhood, I became determined to trace her & my birth father, & to learn why I was given away, in an effort to establish a sense of my own identity. This is the story of my obsessive search over many years, overlapping with my striving to achieve personal goals. Interwoven in it in passing are some aspects of English social history that resonate especially with baby-boomers & similar. My research unearthed some traumatic & little-known experiences & events, both public & personal, in the distant past, plus some recent developments that add surprising twists. I have spoken to Rotary & Probus Clubs, & special interest clubs such as Colchester Aural History, Langham Ladies, the NE ESSEX NHS Social Club, The Ipswich Civil Service Motoring Association, Layer de la Haye Good Companions, Lexden History Society, The CNS Class of '61 Reunion Society, & Colchester U3A. I have had a full page published about me in the Colchester Evening Gazette. Invariably there will be someone in the audience who approaches me afterwards & says something such as "I've never told anyone this, but......" I believe everybody has a story to tell their grandchildren regarding the huge social & technological revolutions in our lifetimes, & I find it hugely rewarding when people confide in me.