What’s the first book you ever finished and still remember to this day?
When I was 8 years old I went to stay with my grandparents in a village called Felsted in Essex. There was a marvellous little bookshop that I spent ages in during my stay with them. I bought three books I remember very clearly, Dr Who and the Daleks, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and A Bear Called Paddington. I still have copies of the last two although I regretfully got rid of all my Target Books and they are now expensive to buy on ebay! Oh well!
A Bear Called Paddington is the first book in the series and forms the basis of the first film that had such success. It is the story of the bear of the title and his attempts to fit in with the human world under the guidance of his adoptive family The Brown’s. As a young child who also had problems fitting in with the rest of the human world I related to Paddington so much both then and now. It’s got hilarious set pieces, life lessons and characters that became as important to me as anyone in the real world. There was a real safety to these books which meant that years after I first read it I still returned to it as I dealt with a world that was even more unfriendly at 18 than it was at 8. I really must read it again, specifically the same copy and one that was signed by Michael Bond himself.
What’s the most profound piece of advice you’ve been given? Did you take it?
One of my favourite songs is Sunscreen by Baz Luhrman which reached Number 1 in the UK charts. It pokes fun at the idea of graduation speeches and the whole concept of giving advice whilst actually delivering some good advice itself. So, what is the problem with advice?
Well, the biggest problem with advice is that it comes from someone who, nine times out of ten, doesn’t know the full story, isn’t in anything like the same situation and is actually saying what they would do rather than what you should do. I remember getting advice throughout my life from, usually, well meaning people who didn’t know what I was going through because I didn’t tell them. I remember one of my friends telling me that if I wanted to get further in teaching that I needed to invest in much better clothes as mine were not giving out the right message. For him, it was perfect advice as he was a boardroom level executive. For me, it was completely useless because my progress was going to be based on my record, for a teacher I was very smart already, and I had nothing like the £400 to £500 lying around to upgrade my wardrobe as he suggested! It was around this time that I stopped having much to do with any advice I was offered that didn’t come from my wife.
Janet gives me the advice I need because she knows me and my situations fully, more fully than I do in fact. Her advice is tailored to me and to what is best for our family and always has been. She knows our finances so she isn’t going to tell me to spend loads of money we don’t have on things we don’t need. She told me I needed to step back from year round work and showed me how it would be possible financially. As ever, I took a while to come round to the idea but when I did I knew she would be right. So, as Sunscreen says, ‘Be careful whose advice you take’ because very few people have any real idea of you or your situation.
If you had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, what would you do?
This is a really interesting question. The answer is not a clear one for me, because of the experiences I have had over the years. Like many other aspects of my life I can look at myself pre Janet and myself from the time I realised she was the one.
My old self would have gone absolutely mad with an unlimited budget for 24 hours! In the old days I would just have bought everything I wanted to in a record shop and then pay for a taxi to help me ferry the armfuls of records back home. I would have gone to the pub with my friends and paid for drinks all night. That isn’t as indulgent as it sounds because as friends we would buy drinks for anyone who was out of work, a student or earning very little. I was one of those in all three categories in my teens and twenties so I would have loved to return the compliment as a way of saying thank you to those who had my back. Finally we would go to our local kebab shop and I would buy takeaway for everyone.
Nowadays things would be very different. If I had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, I would get the bulk of it invested but leave some over to book top seats or boxes for women’s football, concerts, plays and holidays. You see, I now understand the power of money properly having been on such a small budget for so long in our married lives. That power is not in the tangible things it can purchase but in the experiences it can allow us to have. I would want to spend my money on Janet and the children by giving them the experiences that only a lot of money can provide. We were able to enjoy life within limits and to provide the maximum for the children and the bulk of our small disposable income went on clubs for the children and days out. It was that which meant that the children weren’t aware of how poor we were relative to many others.
The idea of unlimited money for even a day can make you live in the moment but it can do something more if you are able to think ahead and build up a whole range of experiences to enjoy once that day is over.
What’s a show that had the perfect series finale?
When perfect show endings are discussed the final scene of Blackadder Goes Forth is rightly considered to be the gold standard. For those who haven’t come across the series, it is the fourth instalment of a comedy series that followed Rowan Atkinson as four members of the Blackadder family through history. The fourth Blackadder was a soldier in the trenches of WWI placed in charge of a unit of misfits including Baldrick played by Tony Robinson who was his servant in the previous series and who was the constant target of Blackadder’s frustration.
The important thing to realise is that the finale only works if you have seen the rest of the series. You follow their journeys and grow to care about them. They are often stupid and in Blackadder’s case unpleasant and duplicitous but they are looking to survive a situation without parallel in human history. Blackadder always has a plan but they always end up going wrong but he is determined to get away from the front one way or another.
The finale itself was first shown in the late 1980s prior to the modern atomised viewing experience. I was at Staffordshire Polytechnic and pretty much everyone had seen it and we were all pretty much silent. When you were asked ‘Did you see it?’, there was no question what ‘it’ was. Watch the whole series and our reactions make sense. Watch the finale on its own and it’s good but it can’t possibly have a proper impact.
Comedy or drama, no ending has ever matched Blackadder Goes Forth.
If you could have dinner with any philosopher, who would it be?
Philosophy is one area of academic interest that I have never explored to any real extent. I can’t really explain why but it has never excited my interest or made me want to spend time getting to know the people and concepts involved.
I have what I saw referred to as ‘nickel knowledge’ in the Eve Plumb book I read. I know the names of the philosophers, the very basic ideas and I guess I could get on the wavelength quickly enough to follow a thread but I don’t really see it as interesting enough to spend time on. Ethics is of more interest to me. When I was teaching I presented a lesson on ethics based purely on my own reading and reactions together with the ideas of other teachers with more knowledge and experience than me. Perhaps you can see that as an offshoot of Philosophy given that your own personal philosophy is what is giving you the ethical framework you need.
I am far more interested in real life and the thoughts that derived from that. My interest in social history and popular culture is based on what I see as authentic people living authentic lives. The massed ranks of ordinary people do nothing amazing and simply live as best they can reacting to life as it happens. There is no time for deeper consideration of life, the universe and everything, as real life is the be all and end all as you simply look to navigate your way through everyday existence. This may be a philosophy of sorts, but it isn’t an abstract one. I could easily take the time to learn about philosophy and upgrade my nickel knowledge but I have no inclination to do so. The philosophers of history will have to look elsewhere for their dinner I’m afraid 😂
