Profile | Meeting Muhammad Ali, tussling with a tennis legend, living easy on Lamma – Nick Lovatt the bearded book man on his 70 years in Hong Kong
- Lovatt was at school in Mong Kok during the 1967 riots and a founding pupil at Island School; as a journalist he was almost headbutted by tennis’ Ilie Nastase
- A resident since 1988 of Lamma, where he met his wife and began growing a beard, he trades secondhand books and helps people move house, he tells Kate Whitehead
My grandmother was an English teacher in Shanghai in the 1920s and my dad was born there in 1926. My maternal grandparents also lived in Shanghai – my grandfather Teddy was the chief steward at the Shanghai Jockey Club and later moved to Hong Kong, where he was the chief steward at the Hong Kong Jockey Club until the early 1960s. My dad was in the British Navy.
I was born in 1954 in London and when I was a baby, my dad took early retirement from the navy and we moved to Hong Kong. My younger sisters, Mel and Sarah, were both born in Hong Kong. My dad had a small pension from the navy and worked as a model for hire and my mum worked for Deak as a business secretary.
When we first moved to Hong Kong, we lived in Stanley and I went to Mrs Arculli’s kindergarten. Later, we lived along Tai Tam Road and were the first people to move into the Redhill estate. I went to Quarry Bay School and from there to Diocesan Boys’ School on Argyle Street, where I was a weekly boarder.
I was there during the 1967 riots and later that year, when Island School opened on Bonham Road, I moved there. I was a founder pupil and can still remember my number – 71113 – in Da Vinci House. As it was a new school and we didn’t yet have school uniforms, you could turn up in jeans and T-shirts and romp around a bit.
Paisley and flares
Halfway through my O-levels, my uncle Jeremy offered to get me into Milton Abbey School in Dorset. I had the biggest record collection there. Everyone else had basic stuff like Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles, but I veered out all over the place, from Picturesque Matchstickable Messages by Status Quo to In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson. I liked punk and psychedelia.