I wondered if Tom Hayes had
approved of the man who married his
daughter. “Ish,” Alan says. “They were
like chalk and cheese. My grandad was
a straight and serious ex-army person,
my dad was eccentric to the extreme,
an off-the-wall person and you never
knew what he was going to do next.”
Our interviewee’s assessment of
his old man is well supported by an
incident involving some chicken eggs.
Robin had actually encouraged his
father-in-law to keep chickens and
on one occasion three eggs hadn’t
hatched; by way of solving the
problem, Robin suggested to Sue that
she place them in her bra. All night she
sat up talking to these eggs resting by
her chest…and it worked.
Alan tells me of how his dad was at
every party, entertaining everyone
with his guitar and jokes. “One time I
don’t know what had happened,” he
says. “He’d gone to the pub and come
back with a load of Irish builders. He’d
brought them all back to stay in our
garden for the weekend.
“I’ve got daughters of my own now,”
the car mechanic reflects. “And I can
understand now why, as a dad, you’d
want someone a bit more down the
line for your daughter than someone
who’s often down the local pub and
getting carried home at whatever time
of the morning – like Dad.
“He’d always do Russian Cossack
dancing,” Alan recalls. “He’d do it on
tables or even on the bar.”
One particular party served as a
send-off for Alan before he journeyed
to Australia for a while. In a farewell
speech Robin produced a wad of
£50 notes for his only son to take
with him. “I thought ‘there’s ten grand
here!’ and wondered where he’d got
such money from,” Alan says. “I gave
it to the barman to keep safe that
night and got a round in for everyone
costing about £150; I didn’t care, I
had £10,000!” Later that night the
A family do; Robin is top right with Alan to his right
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