FORMER Bolton School head boy Len Vickers lives in New York but has been "shocked" by the amount of crime in Bolton.

Len, a top American businessman, cannot believe the high level of "petty crime" reported in the Bolton Evening News.

It may seem unbelievable to most local folk, but Len is convinced New York is a safer place to live than Bolton.

"I'm talking about muggings and fires, lager louts and things like that. I'm not talking about homicides.

"I don't like the way my sisters have to live here in Bolton. I definitely believe there is not the same amount of petty crime in New York."

But Len does not want to dwell on the negative aspects of Bolton. He is back in his home town to help Bolton School promote its appeal for more bursaries, to help children who would not be able to attend the school without extra financial help.

It is a subject close to Len's heart. The 59-year-old entrepreneur was educated at Bolton School on a scholarship and he believes the school was instrumental in making him the success he is today.

So impressed was Len by his education at Bolton School Boys' Division, and the fact that he received an assisted place, he has paid for "a place forever" for a child at Bolton School.

"I didn't do it because I wanted thanks. I did it because I wanted to give someone the same opportunity I had."

Len, who has helped to bring success to major American companies, including General Electric and Xerox, never felt disadvantaged at Bolton School, even though he was the son of a slater from Daubhill and mixed with youngsters from wealthy families.

"I never thought of myself as any different to the other children. I was head boy and it never occurred to me that I shouldn't be.

"It was only when my sister said that she thought the headmaster had taken a chance on me that I started to think about it."

Len's rise to greatness had humble beginnings. He was born the son of slater Harry Vickers and his wife, Phoebe.

He has fond memories of his family but also remembers, with a smile, the day his father embarrassed him in front of the whole of Brandwood Street Primary School, where Len was a pupil.

It was during a famous visit to the town by Field Marshal Montgomery.

"We had been waiting for Monty to arrive and we were all standing outside the school when we heard a noise, a rattle.

"Everyone thought it was Monty arriving but it wasn't. It was my father pushing his hand cart. I was so embarrassed."

His father had never learned to drive and used a hand cart to transport his ladders as he worked on roofs in Bolton. Len went on to Bolton School from Brandwood Street and enjoyed both the education and experience in life that his time at the school gave him.

He left Bolton School for Cambridge, but still believes it was his time at Bolton School that shaped him to become the success he is today.

Len has worked for several top firms, including Unilever. His impressive marketing record saw him launch Birds Eye faggots here in Britain.

He is perhaps best known in America, where he moved in the 1960s, for his catchy General Electric advertising slogan: "We Bring Good Things To Life".

He left General Electric to do "entrepreneurial things" and got involved with a Swedish glass gallery through his second wife, Gunilla, who is from Sweden.

He then went to work for the huge American company Xerox and was president of their worldwide marketing department.

He "quit" Xerox in around 1998 "to do nothing" and then "lapsed back into consulting".

But now he is retiring -- "I'm 60 in January" -- and he is concentrating on keeping fit and enjoying spending time with his family, which includes four children and two grandchildren.

Len has two homes, one just a few blocks from the World Trade Centre in New York and another in Manhattan.

He says the atmosphere in America is amazingly up-beat following the tragic events of September 11 and the American people are "humbled" by the support of their "English friends".

With a tear in his eye -- "I still get emotional about it" -- he recalls the day New York, perhaps the World, changed forever but adds: "We will get over this."

There is, he says, an air of survival about the people of New York, who have more of a community spirit, a shared suffering today.

Len, who has two sisters in Bolton, Audrey Lomax and Dorothy Dawson, has spent time enjoying the English countryside during his short visit to this country and says "people in England don't realise just how lucky they are.

"I've been on to the moors in Bolton, to the Lake District and to the Trough of Bowland. They are beautiful places".

He has been greeted like a long-lost brother by the staff at Bolton School, describes the head of Bolton School Boys' Division, Alan Wright, as "inspirational" and has thoroughly enjoyed being back in his home town.

Although America is quite obviously home now to Len -- he talks with an American accent -- he is proud of his roots.

"I think of myself as both a Boltonian and an American. My head is American, I think like a Yank and my heart is split too.

"But my soul is English."