Category: Personal history
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Forgotten Moments in Music History
If I had a pound for every time someone asked me how this cartoon series got started, I’d have, um, about six pounds.
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Cecil Parkinson, Ken Livingstone, music and me
I don’t think I was aware of these political heavyweights being on the same bill that term, and just as well: I was nervous enough already.
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The University Challenge Challenge
It’s nice to know that occasionally you can make a tiny, tiny difference.
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The Gem of Tanzania
In December 2009 I sat in the Birmingham office of an accountancy firm, turning in my hands a gemstone which had been valued at eleven million pounds. I had the chance to buy it. How much should I bid?
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Trying not to Work
Rather than simply juggling the letters on paper, was there a systematic way to solve anagrams?
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1996 and 1997: How Merrill Lynch ruined them
Merrill Lynch, the “thundering herd”, had turned its mighty power on to my cosy little domain…
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Father to the man
No doubt I should have been learning more (or at least something) about the Phoenix Park murders, or rereading the turgid pages of Le Baiser au lépreux.
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O jabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
…as we stepped outside and felt a little warmth in the late February sun, it certainly started to feel like spring.
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Smokey’s 49-year vacation
I was prepared to leave it at that, and leave a bit of mystery in his life.
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Llanuwchllyn
“Three of those people are your relatives”. That should have surprised me, but it didn’t. After all, this was Llanuwchllyn.
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The Copper Bowl
He soon came back with a Swiss 50 franc note, with about a quarter missing. “You’re welcome to this if you can use it.’
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My Short but Glorious Rugby Career
…had I stayed the course, Dad would have loved to give me that shirt.
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Odontophobia
…I put this down to a generation of dentists who seemed to come from a military background, recruited in the days when physical strength was required for the job.
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The bubble car picture
And now, perhaps fifty years later, I was looking once more upon the bubble-car picture.
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The Laboratory in Chestnut Avenue
I learned, perhaps, that the smartest business plan will fail if it upsets customers.
Ramblings 