Neil McAleer

“Clarke remembered having his first experience with global communication when he worked at the Bishops Lydeard Post Office in his teens. “I was night operator for quite a long time at Bishops Lydeard, and one night there was a call from New York—very rare in those days. The call came by radio, of course; it was long before there was any telephonic cable. The operator in Taunton must have detected me listening in, and told me to unplug. I was probably weakening the signal.”
― Neil McAleer, Sir Arthur C. Clarke: Odyssey of a Visionary

“I was night operator at the same time. I slept in the post office, greeted the mailmen when they came in about four o’clock in the morning, sorted the mail, delivered it, which meant riding three or four miles, and then went to school. And I managed to read about two books a day. There was no TV in those days; that made all the difference.”
― Neil McAleer, Sir Arthur C. Clarke: Odyssey of a Visionary