My cousin David

My father Donald’s favourite cousin, John and wife Win, have two children, Gillian who is my oldest and very dear friend, and her big brother David.

As children we thought David so dashing and handsome (he still is) and he was always so nice to us silly girls. Gill and I spent one memorable summer together with my sister Andy, and my friend Frankie, mostly on the River Cam, but also adventuring around Cambridge and out into the country.

One day David set us a treasure hunt round Cambridge. He gave us the first clue and after much deciphering we dashed off to follow it and find the next one. I think David hid nearby to check we did find it, but we were just smart enough between us to figure them all out. One clue was something like ‘The bridge that sounds like the Chancellor of the Exchequer’… we had to stop a passer-by to ask who that was, Reginald Maudlin so we then raced off to Magdalene (pronounced Maudlin) Bridge. Another clue was concealed in the keyhole of a very famous old pillar box outside King’s College.

The climax of the treasure hunt, the memory of which still makes me giggle, was a clue which told us that a friend of David’s would be up the top of the tower of Great St Mary’s Church and he would give us the next clue (or prize, I don’t remember) The only difficulty was that his friend was deaf and dumb. I had been in the Brownies so I knew sign language and I was sent up the tower by Frankie, Andy and Gill.

On top of the tower David himself was waiting, pretending to be his mute friend. Nothing daunted I signed to him, he of course hadn’t thought any of us would do that, he was just going to hand us the next clue or point to something! I can just imagine now, me a serious and eager fourteen year old, in awe of this handsome young man, signing away while he looks at me, politely baffled and wondering how to reply!

David became a doctor, had four children, but has always maintained a wide range of other interests, including a passion for the Tango, on which he is a renowned expert. He produced an excellent book ‘A Passion For Tango’, a wonderful and well-written work, I’m so proud of him! If anyone is interested, then please read his book, because it is fascinating – even to someone like me with two left feet!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Turner/e/B0034PIZUK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

Multi-talented, David has also written another book about one of his other interests: