# Anne Farrar
You describe your mother as [*the forceful one*](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_583?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo)* in the family*.[ Half Italian](https://twitter.com/jeremyfarrar/status/1245473091393904641), she does seem to be a high-energy, strong woman - driving army-trucks during the war is not for dainty types.
*She was*[ *driving my father*](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_676?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo)* for some debriefing. .. So they met like that. And being two amazing romantics, actually, they were married actually, I think a few weeks later. .. And my eldest brother was born well before I think nine months of gestation happened. So obviously, you know, sex wasn't invented at the latter part of the 20th century and they went on to have six children.*
I wouldn't have brought the subject of your mother and father having sex up, but, seeing how you've mentioned it: doing the maths - if they married within a few weeks of meeting and your eldest brother was born *well before nine months of gestation*, guess they must've had sex in the vehicle! (or within days) So yeah, a magnetic attraction.
Whereas your father seems somewhat distant, your mother was a[ *writer and artist*](https://www.ft.com/content/e6e8b13a-f2df-11e3-a3f8-00144feabdc0) - who painted the above picture when she was[ pregnant with you](https://twitter.com/JeremyFarrar/status/1127525471409856513). You describe her as[ *slightly bohemian*](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_583?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo) - *an adventurer* - a person of[ *blended and sometimes divided personalities*](https://twitter.com/JeremyFarrar/status/1127525471409856513)*. *Which is an apt description for you, also. She was a pretty good painter. I’d love to read some of her writings as well - she had an exciting enough life for a book - did she have anything published?
For a bohemian, she also had a good relationship with the US military whilst living in Singapore.
[\[00:32:18\]](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_1938?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo) *In 1964 .. (s)he used to hitch rides with the American military on a plane .. to go shopping in Saigon.*
Cool.
*So Saigon has been sort of part of my background since the early 60s and had such a profound influence on me.*
Which, in turn, has had a profound influence on me - and the world ...
It was Anne's decision to ditch NZ after 6-months in the late-60's. It's no easy thing to relocate a family of six across the oceans - but she hated New Zealand - too[ *chauvinistic*](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_583?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo) - too boring.
[*\[00:10:05\]*](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_605?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo)* : (M)y mother, who sort of ruled the family, really said, look, we're not having this.*
*So we all got on a boat. And so when I first came to Britain, I came by boat.*
*We left Britain soon afterwards to go and live in Libya.*
Although you[ *remember having big arguments*](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_1029?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo) with your mother, the sense is you two connected. She *was* a remarkable woman - it's worth ticking off her accomplishments again: army truck-driver, painter, writer, bohemian, military plane hitch-hiker, itinerant adventurer, mother of 6, forceful family ruler ...
[\[00:17:09\]](https://www.happyscribe.com/public/desert-island-discs/professor-sir-jeremy-farrar#paragraph_1029?utm_source=public_transcript&utm_medium=highlight_copy&utm_campaign=public_promo):* I think science is like an artist faced with a blank canvas at the start. You've no idea where it's going to go, but you can dream and you can dream about what's on it.*