Michael Robinson started thinking about his own mortality when the Covid-19 pandemic hit back in 2020. At that time he was still writing a weekly column about wine for The Royal Gazette, but had just retired as director of wines from Burrows & Lightbourn after 22 years.

“The big puzzle in life is that we can remember so much for so long, and then there is no record of it any more,” he said. “We do all that thinking and feeling for all those years, and then nothing.”

So he began to write a book about his life, mainly for his three sons Bryn, Roland and Dylan and wife Gay.

Vintage Reflections — An 80 Year Journey is on local shelves now.

The book recounts how he spent much of his early life on Wesley Street in Hamilton, with his mother, Winifred Robinson and a brother, Gordon.

In those days the street was residential on either side, a stones throw from the derelict Hamilton Hotel, where City Hall and the car park are today.

He remembered how turning from Church Street on to Wesley Street the first cottage was a tailor shop.

“I loved to visit it and watch the women, and a few men, busy pedalling with their feet to to drive the sewing machines,” said Mr Robinson, who is now 87.

He speculated that the machines were mostly for alterations rather than new clothing, as most people did not have the money for a new dress or pair of shorts during the Second World War.

A lady from the shop remembered him 40 years later, saying he had not changed a bit.

Mr Robinson’s father, Rowland “Skipper” Robinson was a captain in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.

In the book, Mr Robinson recalled how his mother once tossed a drawer of his father’s things from a bedroom drawer into the trash. From there she threw the rubbish into a metal oil drum and set it alight.

In those days people burnt as much of their trash as they could.

“Suddenly all hell broke loose as ammunition began to ignite and explode,” Mr Robinson wrote. “My father was called, and fortunately was on the scene quite quickly, but by this time the show was over and once again all was quiet on our street. No one was wounded, but I suspect that our incinerator had a few more air intake holes on its sides!”

On December 22, 1955, Mr Robinson was living on the corner of Dundonald Street and Cedar Avenue when the Hamilton Hotel caught fire.

“We were throwing buckets of water on the roof, because the embers were just coming over and landing on our house,” Mr Robinson said. “The wind was coming right from that direction.”

A few years later, he was working for ZBM in Hamilton when the Bermudiana Hotel caught fire.

“I happened to be down in St George’s, and I could see this big cloud of smoke hanging over Hamilton,” he said. “I thought, I better get my little Morris Minor and rush up to work and see what's going on. We had the best live broadcast you could have on the roof of the building overlooking the fire.”

Given that he had been penning columns for decades the writing came fairly easily, but his daughter-in-law, Emily Bierman, helped arrange photographs for the memoir.

The book contains pictures of his life including one of the Typhoon motorcycle he had when he was 17.

“I have that picture because of David Skinner, who was a photographer at The Royal Gazette,” he said. “He was our neighbour for about 30 years. I found some old negatives and asked if he could do anything with them.”

Mr Skinner was able to get them developed.

Being strictly old school, Mr Robinson does not think much of using artificial intelligence to write. However, when he was finished the book, one of his sons offered to run it through AI to come up with a blurb for the back cover.

Within three minutes AI read the book and summed it up into one sentence.

“It said Vintage Reflections is a love story,” Mr Robinson recalled. “That is all.”

While love is indeed a part of the book, he was disappointed that the summary included no mention of wine, or anything else.

He said his writing has always been about the three ‘Ls’ love, yes, but also learning and laughter.

“Laughter really is the best medicine, with no bad side effects,” he said.

There is no profanity in the Vintage Reflections.

“I just wanted it to be something that somebody could sit down and actually read,” he said. “Anyone can read it.”

The book went up on Amazon before being released in local stores earlier this month.

“The feedback has been positive,” Mr Robinson said.