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I went to high school in the highlands of Scotland.

My primary and secondary education was provided by the Highland Park Public School System.

I had a great education. From kindergarten to John Dewey High School in Coney Island, I am public-school educated.

I have got the best of both worlds; growing up in Edinburgh and now living outside Glasgow.

I started school in public housing. My dad had a sixth-grade education.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.

I left Scotland when I was 16 because I had no qualifications for anything but the Navy, having left school at 13.

We lived in a suburb of Birmingham where I attended the local state school from the age of five. I then went on to King Edward VI High School in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

I grew up a middle class, colonized child of teachers and librarians and people, women especially, who treasured education.

My family supported me. I wasn't hot-housed at all as a young child; I didn't go to any kind of gifted school. They didn't exist in the very poor parts of England when I grew up in the 1980s. I had a great time to learn, had access to libraries and teachers who were patient and enthusiastic when I showed ability in some subjects.