In The Beginning

In the beginning there were Woodbine non-filters, Vanguard (anyone remember them?) and Navy Blue-Liners. I had my first cigarette at 11, and probably started regularly at 14 or so. That was at school and it was incredible how we managed to make 100 or so roll ups from an 1/8 of Old Holborn. It was also incredible how we managed to smoke all but the last 4 or 5 millimeters. This was a skill fashioned partly out of schoolboy ingenuity and partly by the constraints of a limited budget. That was 25 years and 182,500 cigarettes ago. Or, in todays money, £40,000!

My name is Karl Lewis, and I am a smoker.