What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected
their current life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how
her family history influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in Yorkshire.
For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was going to do, too. But in the
1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly there was no work for young men like my dad. My
mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because
her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important
job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and people from
communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places, new enterprises were
starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether. Among those
people were the ‘New Age Travellers’. They lived in old lorries and buses and travelled from one music festival
to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in convoys and they were unpopular with many
people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping
and planning more festivals. There used to be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*.
In 1985, the Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of the
people who went to join the convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and my dad, who
had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were arrested
at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer Solstice 1986 – that's why
they called me Summer. Both families were really shocked and disappointed. I didn't even meet my
grandparents until I was seven. When I was little we travelled round Europe in an old double-decker bus. My
dad's a talented musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so they joined this strange alternative circus
called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the usual circus things – just human performers doing
really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never ate meat. We went to lots
of music festivals and political demonstrations. I learned a lot about being an outsider. In some places people
were really hostile. There was no need for this; everyone in our circus was very gentle and very honest. People
are just afraid of difference. I'm sure it is this early experience that made me interested in how society treats
minority groups. I doubt I'd be so interested in social exclusion if I hadn't experienced it. It has been the subject
of all my films.
When I was seven my dad got news that his mother was seriously ill. They returned to the UK and made peace
with their families. We lived in a house and I went to school. I was really excited to have my own bedroom and
eat normal food like cornflakes at my cousin's houses. When I started school I could read and juggle much better
than the other kids – and my knowledge of European geography was way ahead of theirs! I'm sure I wouldn't
have known so much at that age if my parents had been more conventional.
*Stonehenge is a 5,000 year old monument in southern England. Summer Solstice (21st June) is the longest day of year in
the northern hemisphere. On the Summer Solstice the sun is aligned with the stones so that light shines through the arches
at dawn. Druids still go to Stonehenge on 21st June to celebrate the summer solstice.
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected
their current life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how
her family history influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining village in Yorkshire.
For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what dad was going to do, too. But in the
1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly there was no work for young men like my dad. My
mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because
her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important
job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and people from
communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other places, new enterprises were
starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether. Among those
people were the ‘New Age Travellers’. They lived in old lorries and buses and travelled from one music festival
to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in convoys and they were unpopular with many
people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping
and planning more festivals. There used to be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*.
In 1985, the Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of the
people who went to join the convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from school and my dad, who
had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were arrested
at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer Solstice 1986 – that's why
they called me Summer. Both families were really shocked and disappointed. I didn't even meet my
grandparents until I was seven. When I was little we travelled round Europe in an old double-decker bus. My
dad's a talented musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so they joined this strange alternative circus
called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the usual circus things – just human performers doing
really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never ate meat. We went to lots
of music festivals and political demonstrations. I learned a lot about being an outsider. In some places people
were really hostile. There was no need for this; everyone in our circus was very gentle and very honest. People
are just afraid of difference. I'm sure it is this early experience that made me interested in how society treats
minority groups. I doubt I'd be so interested in social exclusion if I hadn't experienced it. It has been the subject
of all my films.
When I was seven my dad got news that his mother was seriously ill. They returned to the UK and made peace
with their families. We lived in a house and I went to school. I was really excited to have my own bedroom and
eat normal food like cornflakes at my cousin's houses. When I started school I could read and juggle much better
than the other kids – and my knowledge of European geography was way ahead of theirs! I'm sure I wouldn't
have known so much at that age if my parents had been more conventional.
*Stonehenge is a 5,000 year old monument in southern England. Summer Solstice (21st June) is the longest day of year in
the northern hemisphere. On the Summer Solstice the sun is aligned with the stones so that light shines through the arches
at dawn. Druids still go to Stonehenge on 21st June to celebrate the summer solstice.
