I was born in Canada, but bundled to the UK as a baby by my father. Fifty years' later, I realized I was not British, but it seems that no one else did. Although my father was British, I couldn't inherit his nationality either, because I'm a bastard! British naturalization has to be applied for, which I did. It costs a lot of money, takes a lot of time and at the end of it, I was required to attend a ceremony, where I would have to swear allegiance to the Queen and "all her heirs and successors". I will not swear allegiance to anybody. It is not because I have a problem with the Queen personally. I don't mind if she comes to my flat for a cuppa. It's the fact that, if one of her heirs turns out to be a monkey, I would have blindly sworn allegiance to it. Similarly, a successor who is not an heir could be a dictator. A lot of this farce is parodied in my first novel, Mammoth Obsequious. I have a problem with authority. My mother fed me soap, which made me swear more.