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Funny how things stick in your mind:
I was born in Birmingham, but we left around 1951 and moved to Essex. Only there for a short while and went to Lincolnshire which is where we were when the London smog happened.
I remember hearing something and asking my mother what it was about. She explained to the effect that the smoke from chimneys had combined with fog and made it worse, because it was a big city and there were a lot of fireplaces.
With the clarity of vision of a 5-year-old, I asked "why didn't we used to get smog in Birmingham?"
It wasn't until I became a parent myself that I realised the importance of being able to change the subject mid-conversation without the other party even being aware it had happened.
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