There were three things that attracted me to the novel, two of them on the cover.

The first was the circular patch on the protagonist’s neck. What was that? He’s wearing a helmut of some kind but what is that patch? The graphic caught me.

The second was the background. An entire city of pyramids. Where was that? I knew what cities were like - I thought - but I did not know of any city were you had to wear a helmut and all the buildings were pyramids. I was curious.

The third was the clincher. I distinctly remember opening the book to the end and reading “My name was being spoken, but from a long way off. “Will”".

My name is William although I went by Billy at the time.

This is the book that kicked me into the world of book reading. I don’t remember which books I started reading after The City of Lead and Gold but my reading list tended to be science fiction for the longest time. I still read scifi now and again, but my interests have spread considerably. I suspect that I would have fell into book reading at some place and time but it happened to be in 1970, in a public library with Mr. Youd’s very influential book.

Thank you, sir!

Fond memories - thanks for an interesting interview.