Editing David Stratton (section)

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Trowbridge]], [[Wiltshire]], England, in 1939,<ref name=fellini/> David James Stratton<ref name=asio>{{cite book | last=Burgmann | first=M. | title=Dirty Secrets: Our ASIO files | publisher=NewSouth Publishing | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-74224-175-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8toAwAAQBAJ | access-date=30 December 2023 | page=}}</ref> was sent to [[Hampshire]] to see out the [[World War II|war]] years with his grandmother. An avid filmgoer, his grandmother regularly took Stratton to the local cinemas. When he was around six years old, his father returned from the war and the family moved back to Wiltshire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Purcell |first=Charles |date=2019-06-01 |title=David Stratton on changing up the Sydney Film Festival's retrospective |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/david-stratton-on-changing-up-the-sydney-film-festival-s-retrospective-20190529-p51s9n.html |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}</ref> He attended [[Chafyn Grove School]] from 1948 to 1953 as a [[Boarding school|boarder]],<ref name=fellini>{{cite book | last=Stratton | first=D. | title=I Peed on Fellini: Recollections of a Life in Film | publisher=William Heinemann | year=2008 | isbn=978-1-74166-619-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPgXei32evoC | access-date=30 December 2023 | page=}}</ref> but never finished [[secondary school]].<ref name=hennessy2023/>

He saw his first [[World cinema|foreign film]] at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1955, the [[Cinema of Italy|Italian]] romantic comedy ''[[Bread, Love and Dreams]]''. That was soon followed by [[Akira Kurosawa]]'s Japanese adventure drama classic ''[[Seven Samurai]]'', found showing in [[Birmingham]].<ref name=abcprof/> At the age of 19, he founded the [[Melksham]] and District Film Society.<ref name="rhs">{{cite web|url = http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Authors/Default.aspx?Page=Author&ID=Stratton,%20David|title = David Stratton|access-date = 16 March 2008|publisher = Random House Australia}}</ref><ref name=hennessy2023/><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/david-stratton| website= The Australian| title= David Stratton | access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref>