I left Stamford High School in the UK back in 1978, which is (to save you the maths) edging towards 50 years ago. So you can imagine my surprise when I was asked to send in some images and do an interview for an article about my work in the school’s glossy annual magazine. The interview itself was done so long ago – and the poor interviewer has since moved on to greener pastures – that I assumed the whole thing had quietly disappeared. I’d even forgotten about it.
Until yesterday, when a note from the school popped up asking if I’d like a hard copy, as the article was now both printed and online. So, for better or worse, here it is below. If you’d rather read a PDF version, just click on either image.
The whole thing has stirred up a mix of memories: the happy ones of geography field trips, painstaking pencil sketches of paramecium and earthworm cross-sections, and midnight feasts (straight out of the Famous Five). And the less happy ones – the dreaded periodic table (my lifelong bête noire), wrestling with slide rules and log tables, and learning to make a cup of tea in cookery. I ditched cookery fairly quickly and picked up Latin instead. With A-levels in physics, geography and biology, I left school, set aside the sciences, and eventually wandered into the humanities as an editor and writer. So yes – the Latin did come in handy after all, sort of!
It feels both strange and rather lovely to be recognised all these years later. If nothing else, I hope it shows that you’re never too old to learn new things or take on new challenges.
