When Gary Stevenson was a boy, he woke up early each morning to wave goodbye to his dad through the window as he flew by on the train. As a Post Office worker, his dad rose at 5am every weekday for 35 years to commute from their two-bed terrace beside the railway track in Ilford, on the outskirts of east London, to his £20,000-a-year job. Stevenson would leave shortly afterwards for his paper round, which earned him £12 a week.
The middle child of three, Stevenson excelled at maths but was unable to afford school trips while a pupil at Ilford County Grammar School. He would watch the glass and steel towers of Canary Wharf being built on the deserted docklands in the distance – the iconic pyramid-topped skyscraper, 1 Canada Square, went up in London’s new business district when he was eight and he felt it was being built for him.
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