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NEWS AND NOTES Updates from Balliol alumni around the world - A supplement to Floreat Domus 2020 - University of ...
NEWS AND NOTES
 Updates from Balliol alumni around the world
             A supplement to Floreat Domus 2020
NEWS AND NOTES Updates from Balliol alumni around the world - A supplement to Floreat Domus 2020 - University of ...
News and Notes
NEWS AND NOTES

                              We are delighted to share news from the Balliol community

                                                               (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016). My           any rate contain one new piece by me
                 1940s                                         more recent work is currently presented
                                                               in ‘Papers of Edward Gelles’ on the
                                                                                                           in response to her introduction to the
                                                                                                           collection. Another surprise for me has
                 David Grove (1941)                            Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts      been Routledge’s proposal to republish
                 On a sunny day in September my                website. I have just added an essay         during the course of 2020 my little A
                 grandson Reuben (Exeter College,              entitled ‘Some Gelles and Jaffe family      Modern Introduction to Moral Philosophy,
                 2005) drove us to Oxford for one of           migrations in recent centuries’ outlining   first published by them in as long
                 my rare visits to College. It was good        our journey of the past 400 years from      ago as 1958 – and so no longer really
                 to meet Stewart Tiley (Librarian) and         Prague to Poland and Lithuania, whence      justified in bearing the term ‘modern’
                 Bethany Hamblen (Archivist and                branches moved west to Silesia, Berlin,     in its title!
                 Records Manager) and hand over three          and further into Germany, and south
                 boxes of my papers for safekeeping in         via Galicia to Vienna, with members of      Sir Jack Stewart-Clark Bt (1949)
                 the Balliol Archives.                         both these branches ultimately coming       In 1999 I retired from the European
                                                               to England just before the outbreak of      Parliament, having served there
                 Edward Gelles (1944)                          the Second World War.                       faithfully for 20 years. In 1996 I had
                 Continuing my study of Jewish                                                             inherited my family home of Dundas
                 families and their pan-European               Derek Abrahams (1946)                       Castle near Edinburgh. My wife and I
                 migrations – their history, genealogy,        Some months ago I fell and broke a big      set about a complete restoration and
                 and genetic admixtures being related          thigh bone, so now I hobble around on       then turned our home into a wedding
                 to the changing political, social, and        crutches. I tripped coming out of the       and corporate hospitality venue. We
                 economic background of the countries          gym. Otherwise, I’m fit and well and        now do 60 weddings a year and have a
                 they lived in and the ethnic groups           getting quite good at hobbling.             turnover of nearly one million pounds
                 they encountered on their millennial                                                      per year. We are immensely proud
                 journey. Beginning with the wider             William Haines (1947)                       because for the second year running
                 ancestral background of my own                Angela and I have been paying for a         we have won the prestigious VOWS
                 family and its connections with many          young Indian girl to train as a nurse.      award for the best wedding venue in
                 notable rabbis of the past, my study has      She has qualified with firsts in BSc and    Scotland. Life was exciting at 70 and
                 expanded to represent in microcosm            MSc Nursing and wants to pass the           continued to 90 and hasn’t ended
                 an outline history of European Jewry.         English language exam, which she finds      yet! I have founded a new charity
                 My published books are An Ancient             a struggle, so that she can work in the     called SOHTIS (Survivors of Human
                 Lineage: European Roots of a Jewish Family    UK. Her command of English would            Trafficking in Scotland) to try and
                 (Vallentine Mitchell, 2006); four             be improved if language courses were        mitigate the effects of this evil trade.
                 paperbacks: Family Connections: Gelles-       transmitted on the local radio, like the
                 Horowitz-Chajes, Gelles-Shapiro-Friedman,     British Council and BBC courses on the
                 Ephemeral & Eternal: Josef Gelles, a brief    internet. The 35,000 primary schools
                 life; Meeting My Ancestors: Genealogy,
                 Genes and Heritage (Shaker Publishing,
                                                               in India would also welcome lessons
                                                               delivered by an English voice. Can
                                                                                                           1950s
                 2008–2012); and my latest book, A Jewish      anyone help, please?                        Roger Corman (1950)
                 Journey: A Passage through European History                                               On 13 July 2017 Roger was given the
                                                               Alan Montefiore (1948 and Emeritus          Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres,
                                                               Fellow)                                     the highest honour the French
                                                               It is nice, if not a little surprising to   Government bestows in the arts.
                                                               me at my by now undeniably distinctly
                                                               advanced age, to find myself reporting      John Mallet (1950)
                                                               the appearance of a collection of my        Since my marriage to Diana Edwards
                                                               pieces written over the years, and          Murnaghan I spend nearly half the year
                                                               published (some of them at least) in        in Baltimore, Maryland. I celebrated
                                                               one odd place or another, under the         my 89th birthday by flying to Turin
                                                               title Philosophy and the Human Paradox      to deliver a lecture in Italian at a
                                                               (Routledge, 2019). The collection is        conference on the collecting of Italian
                                                               edited by Danielle Sands, and does at       Renaissance maiolica for museums.

                                                                                        Front cover photo: Phoebe Lowry (née Grant-Smith) (2012)
                 1   FLOREAT DOMUS MAY 2020                                             on the day of her marriage to Dr Andrew Lowry
NEWS AND NOTES Updates from Balliol alumni around the world - A supplement to Floreat Domus 2020 - University of ...
NEWS AND NOTES
Weland Stone (1950)                       Professor Ian Macdonald (1952)               Gospel until after the chance fishing
At 87 and physically considerably         ‘My way of life/Is fall’n into the sere,     trip, when the disciples engaged in
weaker, my main news is of continued      the yellow leaf;’ so said Macbeth and so     it could think of nothing better to
existence. Alumni from my year seem       thought I as I passed my 90th birthday.      do. Following Richard Bauckham, I
mostly to have died before their time.    However, I am pleased to report on two       am using the Fourth Gospel as first-
However, I try to maintain my post-       new honours that have come my way in         hand witness, although it was written
retirement hobbies of Latin classes,      recent months. First, after many years       by, possibly, John the Elder (as the
embroidery and inexpert bridge and to     of service, I was named an Honorary          witness, who had probably been the
maintain our acre of garden through       Director of the Toronto branch of            preserved fish delivery lad to the
the labours of others. Enjoying a         the Royal Commonwealth Society. I            high priest’s household, was almost
medical student and a classicist-cum-     highly prize my relationship with the        certainly illiterate).
musician as two eldest granddaughters     Commonwealth, having served for
provides continuing interest and          ten years as the volunteer chair of the      Richard Tilney-Bassett (1955)
motivation to keep going.                 Commonwealth of Learning. Second,            After graduating some 50-plus years
                                          on 5 December last, I was inducted into      ago, I’m still going! Still an avid reader
Richard Wheadon (1951)                    the York University Sport Hall of Fame       of Oxford and Balliol news as well as
On Tuesday 15 October 2019 our            in the Builder category. This recognised,    New Scientist weekly. Living quietly now
youngest son, Tristan, married Kirsty     in particular, my role during ten years as   in the south of France near Montauban
in the church of St Pierre du Bois,       President of York University, Toronto,       – any visitors welcome. As some of you
Guernsey, before a congregation of        in creating the National Tennis Centre       will know, my daughter is also a Balliol
about 100. The following Sunday           at York and in persuading Metro              scholar and now lives in France near
20 October at the Chateau de Saint        Toronto to establish the Metro Toronto       Manosque. My son, who graduated
Michel, St Girons, Ariège, in the         Track and Field Centre at the university.    from Exeter and the Open University,
presence of a similar number, albeit      On the personal athletic side, I continue    lives near us close to Toulouse. The
differently constituted, I conducted      to play with our York Professors ice         next generation after are just getting
a service of blessing in which Tristan    hockey team after 45 years.                  started, with one in Durham and
and Kirsty reiterated their vows, their                                                another in the University of Science
plighting of troths and their exchange    Robert Kernohan (1953)                       and Technology in Hong Kong.
of rings. Unaccompanied, we all sang      Old age is hard going, but it was
together ‘Brother, Sister, let me serve   worthwhile to struggle out to the            David Benedictus (1956)
you, let me be as Christ to you …’        Balliol reception at the Royal Society       I have been commissioned to write
to the tune ‘Servant Song’. It was a      of Edinburgh. I am most grateful. My         a new children’s book, subsequent to
beautiful occasion. For me this was       broadcasting and my writing are now          Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (Egmont,
not only an honour and a delight, but     very limited but I still managed bits        2011), but details are not available as
it also happened to complete the full     and pieces on BBC Radio Scotland             I am subject to an NDA. Watch this
spectrum of my 25 years of service as a   and some contributions to The                space, guys!
reader in the Church of England. That     Scottish Review, mainly about the latest
service has embraced not only leading     Balliol Prime Minister’s impact on           John Stabler (1956)
and preaching at morning and evening      the party which I have belonged              I am pursuing a second career as a
services, but also the conducting         to for 70 years and to which (after          mole-catcher in my Norfolk garden. I
(with dispensation) of services of        a little hesitation) I still belong.         endeavour unsuccessfully to keep up
communion by extension on Christmas                                                    with my wife Marjorie on our daily
nights and services of baptism (one on    John Ford (1954)                             dog walks on the coast at Holkham,
Christmas morning); also, sitting with    His book Rudolph Ackermann & the             and I try to activate my few remaining
the dying and the bereaved, conducting    Regency World (Warnham Books, 2018)          neurones by doing battle with the
funerals and administering home           has been widely praised as being a           Listener Crossword every week.
communion to the housebound. It has       definitive work, a review by Mark
been a wonderful experience and I         Bills, the director of Gainsborough’s        Professor Aaron Sloman (1957)
thank God for it.                         House, Sudbury, in Print Quarterly           After two years at Hull University, 27
                                          calling it ‘a valuable and absorbingly       years at Sussex University (apart from
Kenneth Cavander (1952)                   interesting book, not just for print         a one-year fellowship in Edinburgh),
I have been commissioned to write and     scholars, but for all those interested       and 28 years at the University of
adapt a new translation of Sophokles’     in the Regency period, an important          Birmingham in the school of computer
Antigone, for production later in 2020    book which will serve as the standard        science, where I am now an Honorary
at the Westport Playhouse, a nationally   work on the topic for years to come’.        Professor of Artificial Intelligence and
recognised theatre in Connecticut, USA,                                                Cognitive Science, I am still working
performances to be timed with the run-    Alexander Hopkinson-Woolley (1955)           on a topic close to my DPhil thesis:
up to the American general election.      I am trying to write a booklet, in which     i.e. trying to understand the biological
                                          it is suggested that the Temptation of       mechanisms that allowed evolution to
Noël Ing (1952)                           Jesus happened before the reported           produce great ancient mathematicians
I (re) married, on 18 August 2019,        baptism and that Simon Peter did             whose discoveries are still in regular
Sandra Rosemarie Barnes.                  not start the work of spreading the          use, but whose thought processes are

                                                                                                          NEWS AND NOTES        2
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NEWS AND NOTES

                 not yet modelled in AI or explained        see my memoir The Waters of Lahore           Robert Mash (1958)
                 in psychology or neuroscience. I gave      (2013): a copy is in the College Library.    CBC in Canada are threatening to make
                 a talk about this at the conference                                                     a TV series based on my book How to Keep
                 on models of consciousness at the          Geoffrey Cannon (1958)                       Dinosaurs (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003).
                 Oxford Mathematical Institute in           Living in Brazil since 2000, my main
                 September 2019: a video recording of       work now is with the Centre for              Malyn Newitt (1958)
                 my talk happens to be first (because       Epidemiological Studies in Nutrition         Malyn Newitt published The Braganzas:
                 ‘Aaron’ starts with two As?) in the        and Health at the University of São          The Rise and Fall of the Ruling Dynasties of
                 collection of videos here: www.youtube.    Paulo. We have devised the NOVA food         Portugal and Brazil, 1640–1910 Reaction
                 com/channel/UCWgIDgfzRDp-                  classification system. This identifies       (London, 2019).
                 PmQvMsYiNlg                                ultra-processed food products mostly
                                                            manufactured by transnational                Professor Jarle Simensen (1958)
                 HE Kamal Uddin Azfar (1958)                corporations as the driver of what           Since my year at Balliol, on the
                 The College treated us recently            is now pandemic obesity. NOVA is             Anderson Norwegian Scholarship, and
                 emancipated students from the end of       the basis of the 2014 official national      with John Bryson (Fellow 1940–1963)
                 the Raj – such as the Gandhian Ravi        Brazilian food guide (English version        and Christopher Ricks (1953 and
                 Dayal (1959) and the Rhodes Scholar        at http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/            Honorary Fellow) as tutors in English
                 from India Manmohan Malhotra               publicacoes/dietary guidelines_              literature, I have kept in contact with
                 (1958) – like minor royals. The Fellows    brazilian_population.pdf ) and it is         the College and with friends I made. I
                 thoughtfully placed me in the friendly     recognised by UN agencies. My time           have, though, neglected reporting for
                 Dicey corridor to protect the South        at Balliol I am now recording. The           the Balliol records. So, in brief: Back in
                 Asian from homesickness, a corridor        story includes recollections of Patrick      Norway, and after a Major in Russian,
                 where I made lifelong friends. These       Corbett (1945) (who told me that I was       I took history degrees in British
                 included Euan Macphail (1958); Sandy       a journalist, which became true until        colonial and African history (Nigeria
                 Lindsay (1958), grandson of A.D.           my mid-40s), Tommy Balogh (Fellow            and Ghana), and from 1973 built
                 Lindsay (Master 1924–1949); John Crow      1945–1973) and Paul Streeten (1944,          up a programme in African history
                 (1958) of the IMF; and the historian       Fellow 1948–1978, Honorary Fellow            in Trondheim, at the Norwegian
                 Clive Jordan (1958), in whose rooms        1986–2019); Charles Taylor (1952) and        University of Science and Technology,
                 we heard with bated breath de Gaulle       Michael Dummett (1947) of All Souls;         while teaching international and global
                 declaring Algerian independence.           also Edgar Wind and Raghavan Iyer.           history as an Adjunct Professor in Oslo.
                 Centrally air-conditioned Holywell         My story also includes the success in        We moved to Oslo in 1998. In addition
                 Manor housed other expats, including       1960 of Oxford Opinion, co-owned             to African and international history,
                 the political historian Alfred Stepan      with Stephan Feuchtwang and initially        my main research contributions have
                 (1958), who won the head and heart         edited by me and art edited by David         been in the history of Norwegian
                 of the charismatic Nancy Leys              Usborne, which had contributions             missions, Norwegian development
                 from nearby Somerville, Alfred and         from J.G. Farrell, Ian Hamilton,             aid and technological transfer to
                 Nancy both ending up as professors         Richard Gott, Kevin Crossley-Holland         Africa. I have spent much time on
                 at Columbia as man and wife until          and many others, notably Ian Cameron,        interdisciplinary cooperation and on
                 Alfred passed away in 2017. Among          Mark Shivas, Victor Perkins and their        establishing a university exchange
                 other friends in Holywell Manor            comrades who transformed thinking            programme with Ghana. I have also
                 were the erudite scholar from Canada       about cinema and went on to create           had stints as Pro-Rector in Trondheim
                 masquerading night and day as a            Movie magazine. In late 2018 with my         and as head of the Norwegian German
                 playboy in dark glasses Graham Nesbitt     then 14-year-old son Gabriel I visited       Historians Program. My wife, Aud
                 (1958); Ashok Nehru (1957), belonging      Balliol. Gabriel, refreshed as we sat with   Marit, is a professor of applied
                 to the high Bahman clan of the first       coffee and cake outside the renewed          linguistics (English), and with our two
                 and greatest Indian Prime Minister,        Buttery, was suitably impressed. I will      children we have spent one research
                 Jawaharlal Nehru; Charles DiBona           be very glad to hear from ’58ers and         year in London and three years at the
                 (1957), married to the beautiful Evelyn,   others from surrounding years. I am on       University of Wisconsin, Madison. I
                 whose parents and dazzling sister          GeoffreyCannon1@gmail.com.                   am now much taken up with global
                 Monica had been forced to emigrate to                                                   history. Back in my cottage on our
                 Stockholm during the Second World          Sir Richard Heygate Bt (1958)                family farm in mountainous Norway,
                 War; and Henry Lloyd (1958). The           Just signed my third contract with           I ask myself: How many worlds, how
                 legend that in response to the opening     the China Railway Group (largest             many identities in my life? One bit
                 question by Marcus Dick (1939, Fellow      construction company in the world).          of that puzzle is Balliol. More can
                 1947–1963, war hero and philosophy         Working mainly in Africa, where the          be found at www.hf.uio.no/iakh/
                 tutor, ‘Azfar, what’d you think            government of Zimbabwe has awarded           english/people/aca/history/emeriti/
                 Philosophy is about? I responded, ‘The     me the title of Friend of the Country. I     jarlesi/simensen-publications.html.
                 search for the Absolute, I suppose,’       work closely with the diaspora, the new
                 whereupon Marcus Dick said, ‘Good          generation of Africans, highly educated,     The Revd Dafydd Miles Board (1959)
                 God,’ and offered me a glass of gin is     who move to the West, but still love         Hopefully, our family is just about to
                 partly apocryphal. It was sherry. For      their country and one day will return        join the ranks of the many families
                 more recollections and rites of passage,   and make it into a giant.                    which have three generations of Balliol

                 3   FLOREAT DOMUS MAY 2020
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NEWS AND NOTES
                                            was astounded to see that one of his        John Hole (1959)
                                            favourite photographs was a ‘Schools        I passed my eightieth birthday and had
                                            Eight’ I put together, composed of          my fourth novel published in August
                                            men in their last term or who did not       this year! The novel is Will Shakespeare’s
                                            want to row full time. The idea was to      Secret, published by Austin Macauley. It
                                            take some competent rowers and race         tells of the rumbustious life of theatre
                                            against less experienced crews in a low     in Elizabethan London and it comes up
                                            division, making bumps so that we           with some interesting and mysterious
                                            did not have to row too far and ideally     facts about how it was that William
                                            pick up some blades. The plan was one       Shakespeare’s success depended
                                            or two outings to get some cohesion,        very much on his relationship with
                                            on race days down to the river around       Christopher Marlowe; and also how
                                            lunchtime, practise on the way to           it is thanks to the dedicated work of
members. All our three will have            the start, make a quick bump, back          his fellow actors John Heminges and
entered from different places and           to College for tea and hit the books.       Henry Condell that his many plays
schools. Here’s an image from the           Unfortunately we failed on the third        have survived and seen such success.
wonderful, and effortlessly impressive      day, but the pain made us try harder
Balliol Open Day, autumn 2019. At 80        and succeed on the Saturday. By the         The Rt Hon Sir David Keene (1959)
plus, I’m sitting with my grandson in       time the crew photographs were taken        I published a short memoir entitled
my first study room on Staircase IV:        Fred Ziegler (1960) had left. It does       Leaving the Arena (Bloomsbury, 2019),
both of us, Dafydd and Efan Meilir          not look good to be one short. This         dealing mainly with my time as a
Owen, physically spanning three Balliol     was the era of the Satire Revival and       barrister and then as a judge.
generations. Efan was later offered a       General Irreverence, with the Oxford
place, provisionally on A-levels of         magazine Mesopotamia morphing               Colin Wyman (1959)
course, for Michaelmas 2020. Plus:          into Private Eye. So it was ideal to fill   I have been reading a law with politics
behold the sort of coincident dates         the empty seat with Russell Meiggs,         degree at Buckingham University for
journalists love. On that memorable         who had an appropriate somewhat             the past three years and have been
Balliol Open Day 2019, it was almost to     eccentric image. At first glance, it is     awarded and upper 2.1 LLB.
the day 60 years before that I had first    a standard crew picture, but in fact
entered that room, IV.3, when coming        was an attempt at a send-up. Meiggs
up as a Fresher. Our family joy in          was concerned about my hedonistic
January following the third-generation
offer letter from the College was well
                                            lifestyle. So, after Finals results were
                                            published, I was greatly pleased to
                                                                                        1960s
expressed by Efan’s mother, Lowri, my       receive his note congratulating me          David Gordon (1960)
daughter, who said truly that we were       on my second ‘as it seemed there            President of the Sierra Madre Playhouse,
‘hapus dros ben’ which translates as        was a real possibility of a fourth’. In     a 99-seat live theatre in the town in
‘summit happy’ or ‘happy right over the     fact I was really not that wild. This       Los Angeles, where we live; French
top’. The entire family rejoiced,           was a time when the worst sin at            on Tuesdays; pilates on Wednesdays;
including Balliol man number two, Dr        Oxford was to be a ‘Grey Man’. Image        hiking on Thursdays; massage on
Steffan Miles Board (1986), my second       was all. I am now nearing the end           Fridays; grandpa in San Diego every
son, who at present is in Nairobi, as       of my 44th year in Paris, working           other weekend, summers in London.
Minister Counsellor at Canada’s High        on obtaining French nationality,            Typical routine of the new young old.
Commission in Kenya.                        to be able to retain my status as a
                                            Citizen of Nowhere. I continue to           Ian Watson (1960)
Malcolm Brahams (1959)                      cultivate my irreverential credo.           As regards academia, being a science
After nearly 40 years I have retired                                                    fiction writer I gave the keynote
from the Council of the Medico-Legal                                                    address for the University of Porto
Society, although I continue to take                                                    (Portugal) in April 2019 at More Meals
an active interest in its activities. The                                               to Come: An International Conference,
rest of my time is taken up with my                                                     a three-day event with the rubric of
grandchildren (eight so far and one                                                     ‘Utopia: Alimentação e Futuro’. My
on the way) and my U3A activities.                                                      address, appearing in 2020 along with
These include leading a current affairs                                                 the other proceedings, was entitled
discussion group which was founded                                                      ‘Better than Being Fossilised!’
just before the 2017 election and,
thanks to recent political turmoil,                                                     Professor Richard Hyman (1961)
has been hyperactive ever since.                                                        After 25 years running the European
                                                                                        Journal of Industrial Relations I have just
Malcolm Forrest (1959)                                                                  handed over to a new editor, though
In the article in the November e-News       Dermot Glynn (1959)                         I will retain a role as founding editor.
about Russell Meiggs (Fellow 1939–          My oldest grandchild, Matilda, came up      Rebecca and I plan to spend more time
1970, Honorary Fellow 1970–1989), I         to Balliol this year to read physics.       on our canal boat in France, unless we

                                                                                                            NEWS AND NOTES        4
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NEWS AND NOTES

                 become collateral damage in the Brexit        Publications: ‘Interconnectedness:             team ensures we are a multinational
                 madness.                                      mapping the shadow banking system’,            and multifaith outfit. Next term sees
                                                               in Banque de France Financial Stability        us enrolled in a Liverpool University
                 Knobby Clarke (1962)                          Review, April 2018; revised version            extramural course on the Architecture
                 Last Easter, while attending the annual       forthcoming as ‘Interconnectedness:            of Liverpool – more listed buildings
                 Viol School in Canberra, I met a woman        shadow banking and Capital Markets             here than in Bath and outstanding
                 whose PhD thesis concerned the                Union’, in F. Allen et al., eds, Capital       Victorian commercial buildings still in
                 extensions to music Braille needed to         Markets Union, MIT Press, 2019; Global         use. It’s still a rewarding life!
                 support the accurate representation of        Dimensions of Macroprudential Policy
                 early music. Since then, I have written       (with Tuomas Peltonen and Antonio              Professor Russell Bryant (1963)
                 the specification of a computing system       Sanchez Serrano), European Systemic            As an active 79-year-old I visit the gym,
                 to implement the automation of those          Risk Board Report, forthcoming;                jog and swim daily at a nearby state
                 ideas on cheap commodity computing            ‘Shadow Banking’, London Business School       park. (I am always amazed at how much
                 hardware and software. The Faculty of         Review, October 2018; ‘Can We Escape           faster I can swim when being chased
                 Engineering at Melbourne University           Boom and Bust?’, London Business School        by an alligator.) This year I hope to
                 has accepted this specification as            Review, October 2019; ‘Carry Trade             finish the first draft of my biography of
                 the subject for a year-long capstone          with Chinese Characteristics’ (with Yi         the British financier-turned-diplomat
                 development project to be undertaken          Huang and Ugo Panizza), Vox China, 13          Lord D’Abernon. I have just gotten
                 by a team of students for the degree of       June 2018 http://voxchina.org/show-            him through the French occupation
                 Master of Software Engineering. I am          3-85.html; ‘Putting the Greek Debt             of the Ruhr in 1923. As someone who
                 presently supervising that team.              Problem to Rest’, with B. Eichengreen,         taught British history for 30 years at an
                                                               E. Avgouleas, M. Maduro, U. Panizza,           American university, I remain mystified
                 John Cookson (1962)                           B. Weder di Mauro, C. Wyplosz, VoxEU,          that Balliol, which educated the two
                 I am maintaining a role in the NHS            20 March 2018, at https://voxeu.org/           prime ministers who put the UK into
                 as a psychiatrist in a male intensive         article/putting-greek-debt-problem-            the European Union, also produced
                 care unit in east London, and teaching        rest; ‘Restoring Trust in Iceland:             the one taking her out. Was there
                 psychopharmacology.                           Iceland’s IMF programme’ (with Fridrik         something earlier in the water that was
                                                               Mar Baldursson), in Sigurjonsson,              subsequently removed?
                 Professor Sir Andrew Likierman                T.O., Bryant, M., & Schwarzkopf, D.
                 (1962)                                        (2018). The Return of Trust? Institutions      David Willington (1964)
                 Since stepping down as Dean of the            and the Public after the Icelandic Financial   My third novel, A Palestine Affair,
                 London Business School, I’ve been back        Crisis, Emerald Publishing Limited,            should be published commercially in
                 on the faculty and researching human          Bingley, UK; ‘Corporate Foreign Bond           the summer. It is set in the British
                 judgement. What is it? How do you             Issuance and Interfirm Loans in China’         Mandate in Palestine, which ended in
                 know you’ve got it? How do you know           (with Yi Huang and Ugo Panizza),               1948. Unputdownable, I would say!
                 other people have got it (such as before      NBER Working Paper 24513, CEPR
                 you hire them)? How can you improve           Discussion Paper 12865, April 2018.            Sir Michael Burton (1965)
                 it? My focus is on management, but I                                                         The year 2019 for me was crowned
                 have also extended it to professions,         Brian Westcott (1962)                          with the announcement in the
                 the relationship to artificial intelligence   I have been invited to Bologna in              Queen’s Birthday Honours List of my
                 and its use in the difficult personal         May 2020 to participate in a licensed          appointment ‘for services to the Rule
                 decisions we make during our lives.           advanced hypnotic practitioner                 of Law’ as Knight Grand Cross of the
                 This is a fascinating topic, if alarmingly    seminar run by Dr Richard Bandler.             British Empire (GBE), a great honour
                 broad in academic terms, since it                                                            marked by going to the Palace with my
                 spans many different disciplines and          Philip Bishop (1963)                           four daughters in November, and the
                 literatures, as well as raising questions     After 46 years of life in Nottinghamshire      grant of a solid gold chain or collar,
                 of how it crosses geographic and              we moved to Liverpool in 2017 to be            which I can only wear on Collar Days (I
                 cultural boundaries. I have produced a        near family. We are enjoying life in           am working on an occasion!) and has to
                 framework (published in the January/          this battered but big-hearted city.            be given back by the girls on my death!
                 February 2020 Harvard Business Review)        A lively six-year-old granddaughter            That apart, I have been still judging in
                 and would be interested to hear from          keeps us active, along with gym for            the Commercial Court and elsewhere,
                 anyone in the Balliol community about         me and Nordic walking for Pam, my              disciplining Chartered Surveyors, and
                 ideas and applications.                       wife. The Royal Liverpool Phil is on           doing a smidgen of arbitrating and
                                                               a roll at present – seven of Mahler’s          mediating; some acting and singing
                 Professor Richard Portes (1962)               symphonies to come in the next seven           too. Also I was blessed with my 10th
                 Appointed Chair of Advisory Scientific        months as well as much Schubert and            grandchild.
                 Committee of European Systemic Risk           some outstanding chamber concerts.
                 Board (ESRB). Re-appointed co-chair of        We are increasingly involved in a food         Martin Cree (1965)
                 ESRB Joint Expert Group on Non-bank           bank for asylum seekers run by the             I have sold my business and have fully
                 Financial Intermediation. Supervised          two cathedrals as well as in support           retired. My wife Anne was diagnosed
                 publication of ESRB Non-bank Financial        for new residents. The presence of             with Alzheimer’s three years ago and I
                 Intermediation Risk Monitor 4, July 2019.     former asylum seekers in our support           now have more time to care for her.

                 5   FLOREAT DOMUS MAY 2020
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NEWS AND NOTES
Peter Hacker (1965)                        18th book – the most difficult yet. It is   Stuart Baldock (1966)
I was appointed to an Honorary UCL         about our broken world – particularly       After over 50 years living and working
Professorship at the Department            with respect to the impending               in the property industry in France,
of Neurology at University College         extinction brought about by climate         during which time I acquired French
London. I published Intellectual           emergency. The difficulty for me            citizenship, I have now realised a long-
Entertainments: Eight Dialogues on Mind,   has been the darkness of extinction         term ambition and moved with my
Consciousness and Thought (Anthem          despite the pacifying alternative of        wife and youngest child to Athens. I
Press, 2020) (it was in fact published     impermanence. My books are not              commute to France whenever business
in October 2019). I also published         candidates for intellectual sophistry       requires.
a second edition of Wittgenstein:          or for theological nicety. As a set of
Meaning and Mind, Volume 3 of an           signposts they may be valuable if the       Christopher Currie (1966)
Analytic Commentary on the Philosophical   signposts are not held on to after          My Senior Research Fellowship of
Investigations, Part I – Essays, Part II   their usefulness is exhausted. It is the    the Institute of Historical Research
– Exegesis, sections 243–427 (Wiley-       reader’s inner experience, as a result      (University of London) was renewed
Blackwell, 2019).                          of the words, that is truly worthwhile.     in November 2019. I continued to
                                           This kind of knowledge lies beyond          be research active, with an article in
Hubert Murray (1965)                       the formulas found in books and the         Vernacular Architecture appearing in
My wife, Nancy Uhlar (LMH, 1967),          intellectual constructions of clever        November and a chapter in Fifty Years of
and I celebrated our 50th wedding          talk. If you cling to a formula in the      Medieval Technology and Social Change, ed.
anniversary this year. We were             mistaken belief that it holds the truth,    Steven A. Walton, in September. I am
introduced to each other by Ron            then be prepared for disappointment.        currently listing all known examples in
Berenbeim (1966) in the Balliol            Formulas for truth expand into rigidly      England, Wales, and Ireland of tenants’
JCR in the heady days of 1968. Our         held beliefs, which deny reality as         copies of court roll before 1400, and
children, based in Tunis and Barcelona     it is. This leads to an escape that is      would be interested to hear from any
respectively, and under instructions not   particular and strategic. The escape is     Old Member who has come across one.
to wantonly increase carbon emissions,     from knowing and experiencing the           More important, my granddaughter
orchestrated from afar an anniversary      energy of inner consciousness. When         Niamh Adiesua Tallon was born on 1
treasure hunt involving a book reading,    these dependencies are abandoned            March 2019.
a spectacular meal and a memorable         through trust in your inner journey,
play – in that order. PPE taught me to     your own experience of inner truth, of      Professor Benjamin Fine (1966)
interpret the world. My architectural      your true nature, then celebrate what       I published: Material Cultures of
degree has allowed me to change it,        has always resided within. That is what     Financialisation, co-edited with K. Bayliss
if only incrementally. Having spent a      I hope readers will reconcile with as       and M. Robertson (Routledge, 2018); and
career planning, designing and building    a viable strategy for our times, so that    Race, Class and the Post-Apartheid Democratic
schools and universities as well as        they, citizens and leaders are equipped     State, co-edited with John Reynolds
highways and train stations, I am now      with the tools that can generate            and Robert van Niekerk (University of
in my retirement working with a team       understanding, compassion and non-          KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019).
of Palestinian teachers designing and      violent reconciliation.
developing a kindergarten in Aida                                                      Martin Kaufman (1966)
Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. This            Lord Angus Stewart (1965)                   Having set up the Institute of
little school for 100 children will be     On 16 November 2019 I retired as            Fundraising (IoF) Cultural Sector
bound to make a huge and positive          Senator of the College of Justice in        Network in 2014, which has organised
difference for families living in very     Scotland for the Presidency of the          the largest cultural sector fundraising
difficult conditions. To be working        Stair Society, Scotland’s premier legal     conferences in Europe, I handed over
together on this project is a wonderful    history society, with effect from 31        to my successor in November 2019.
antidote to the vortex of despair one      March 2020. I am to be succeeded in         However, in July 2019 I became Chair
can so often feel on listening to the      the office by Hon. Lady Wolffe (1984),      of the IoF RAISE Steering Committee,
morning news. If anyone is curious as      Senator of the College of Justice           funded by Arts Council England to
to what we are doing architecturally       in Scotland. I will deliver the Stair       enhance and support cultural sector
and pedagogically, I can be contacted      Society Annual Lecture 2020 with            fundraisers throughout England
at hmurray2012@gmail.com.                  the title ‘Sir Walter Scott: Law and        (outside London). I have a great
                                           Imagination’.                               nationwide committee, but would be
Michael Paling (1965)                                                                  keen to speak to Balliol alumni involved
Packing real cheese, as I write this, to   Benjamin White                              in arts and heritage fundraising who
take to Guatemala, to see me through       (1965)                                      would like to know more.
what will be be my twelfth overseas        I published
trip as a medical volunteer. Queso does    Agriculture and                             Philip Kendall (1966)
not work for me!!!                         the Generation                              Appointed a trustee of the Oxford
                                           Problem: Agrarian                           School of Drama (OSD). Established in
Professor James Prattis (1965)             Change & Peasant                            1986, based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire,
Shattered Earth: Approaching Extinction    Studies (Fernwood                           the OSD is one of the UK’s leading
(Manor House Publishing, 2019) is my       Publishing, 2020).                          drama schools, with distinguished

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NEWS AND NOTES

                 alumni in film, television, and theatre.   and friends. Their two daughters, Lucy
                 Following the appointment of a new         and Rosie, with their husbands and
                 principal from RADA, the school has        six grandchildren were all present to
                 ambitious plans for expansion.             celebrate the joyful occasion at Rhodes
                                                            House. Best man Htun Aye (1966) and
                 Michael Venning (1966)                     his wife were also present, as were
                 After a career in medicine – teacher,      members of the Canadian family. After
                 researcher and university hospital         receiving his DPhil in 1970 and working
                 specialist clinician – I am switching      as a management consultant, in 1973
                 career to spend the next decade or         Tony joined the Canadian government
                 so using my maths PhD, teaching            in Ottawa, where he worked on
                 secondary school maths. So far so          streamlining various government
                 good: my UCAS application to train to      programmes and procedures. In 1981 he      Alan Wilkie (1967), former High Court
                 teach is in. It will keep me in funds to   was seconded to the World Intellectual     judge, and Sir John Holmes (1969),
                 watch Manchester United at home and        Property Organisation, a United            chairman of the Electoral Commission,
                 overseas, and I should get a grant for     Nations Specialized Agency in Geneva,      that makes three members of the
                 the training!                              where he worked until 2004. Later Tony     1971 Balliol College football team (see
                                                            lectured at the University of Geneva for   photo) with Ks. This is one more than
                 Martin Walker (1966)                       the International Organisations MBA        the England 1966 World Cup winners
                 The year 2019 saw the publication          programme. After retirement the family     who have been knighted. I hadn’t
                 of The Body in the Castle Well, the 12th   continues to reside in Switzerland. To     realised we were so good. I regard
                 novel in the Bruno series of Perigord      have been married for 50 years seems       myself as the Balliol Gordon Banks, i.e.
                 mysteries, which have now sold more        to be almost unimaginable in the           the goalkeeper who didn’t get knighted.
                 than 4 million copies in 18 languages.     modern, technological age and Tony
                 It also saw the launch of Bruno’s Garden   and Deborah are very happy to have         The Very Reverend Michael
                 Cookbook, written with my wife Julia,      beaten the statistics!                     Sadgrove (1968)
                 at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I was                                                     Three score years and ten this year.
                 honoured to be elected a member of         Anthony Sheppard (1967)                    Enjoying retirement near Hadrian’s
                 the Jurade of the wines of Montravel       Now starting my seventh year as Hon.       Wall. Pleasures include grandchildren,
                 and a magistrat of the wines of Duras,     Treasurer of the British Institute at      writing and blogging, European travels,
                 and we produced 7,000 bottles of my        Ankara and seeking a successor, as I am    the landscapes and history of North
                 own Cuvée Bruno wine.                      approaching my ‘use by date’! Anybody      East England (Balliol’s homeland),
                                                            interested is welcome to get in touch      photography, music and volunteering.
                 Dennis Childs (1967)                       via hon.treasurer@biaa.ac.uk.              Beyond baffled by Brexit, which goes
                 Caro and I have lived in France for 14                                                against everything I learned at the
                 years now, but only after the Brexit       Professor Jonathan Slack (1967)            diverse, internationalist, outward-
                 referendum did we apply for French         I am still writing scientific books. In    looking Balliol of 50 years ago. http://
                 nationality. In December 2019 we           2018 The Science of Stem Cells came out,   northernwoolgatherer.blogspot.com.
                 were officially naturalised. It makes      published by Wiley. This is intended to
                 surprisingly little difference to our      provide ‘all the basic science you need    David Satter (1968)
                 status here, but as we were in line to     to know’ to be a stem cell biologist,      Never Speak to Strangers
                 lose our right to vote in UK elections     including developmental biology, tissue    and Other Writing from
                 from 2020, at least we will be able to     culture technology, transplantation        Russia and the Soviet
                 vote in the French ones.                   biology and so on. I have just             Union was published
                                                            finished the fourth edition of Essential   in April 2020 by
                 Tony Keefer (1967)                         Developmental Biology, also published by   Iibidem Press/
                 Tony Keefer (Rhodes Scholar from           Wiley. This is my basic textbook. This     Columbia University
                 Ontario) and Deborah were married in       edition is a joint project with my old     Press. It is a
                 Balliol College Chapel on 12 July 1969.    colleague Les Dale, from UCL. It should    collection of my writing and reporting
                 In 2019 they celebrated their Golden       be out by the end of 2020.                 on Russia over more than four decades.
                 Wedding anniversary there with family
                                                            Professor Terrell Carver (1968)            Sir John Holmes (1969)
                                                            I published this ‘accessible’ book         Currently Chair of the UK Electoral
                                                            in 2018: www.wiley.com/en-us/              Commission. Interesting and at times
                                                            Marx-p-9781509518173. And I am             challenging. Dividing my time between
                                                            continuing full-time at the University     London and Oxfordshire.
                                                            of Bristol.
                                                                                                       Robin Poulton (1969)
                                                            Eric Hanslip (1968)                        I Dance Therefore I Am: A Memoir of Scotland,
                                                            Following the report in last year’s News   America and Dancing (independently
                                                            and Notes that Sir Ian Davis (1969) had    published, 2019) is available from
                                                            been knighted, I observe that with Sir     Amazon in print or as e-book. This

                 7   FLOREAT DOMUS MAY 2020
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NEWS AND NOTES
amusing memoir about Scotland                to trial, where he was convicted of          of the coastal trade to create an online
and dancing promotes Scottish                13 counts of perverting the course of        ‘virtual archive’ and research platform
Enlightenment ideas (Hume) against           justice and fraud. He was sentenced to       for an in-depth analysis of the origins
the French (Descartes). Poulton              18 years. The others falsely accused by      and operation of the trade in plants
includes limericks, great stories of         Beech (Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and        and people as well as gold, ivory and
drinking and dancing, travels along the      Harvey Proctor) all received substantial     firearms. The ethno-botany and culinary
Silv’ry River Tay honouring haggis and       compensation from the Metropolitan           history of the Atlantic slave trade have,
bagpipes, the revered Robert Burns and       Police, reflecting the serious errors of     to date, been understudied. Yet the
the unforgettable William McGonagall,        the police in this wholly misguided          trade and subsistence patterns emerging
and J.S. Mill’s ‘the greatest happiness      and reckless investigation costing           from this period continue to shape
of the greatest number’. This poem will      millions of pounds. Many of the senior       and constrain current food systems
make you laugh:                              police officers involved left the force in   throughout Africa. Current public
                                             disgrace. A parliamentary committee          policy concerning African food systems
  Catriona, a wonderful lass,                has been convened to look into the           could benefit from the pursuit of these
  Had a truly remarkable ass:                conduct of the police at all levels.         studies (see https://bit.ly/2TTTsq7). We
  Not rounded and pink                       Edward Heath is of course not alive          need help in interpreting these early
  As you probably think:                     to see his reputation restored. But          maps, and we hope that the digital
  It was grey, had long ears,                for posterity, and for Balliol, I would      platforms for sharing this primary
     and ate grass.                          like to take the opportunity to record       material online will stimulate extended
                                             in these notes the damage done to a          discussions among anthropologists and
Dr Poulton danced his first Highland         distinguished Balliol man and former         historians concerning the early-modern
Fling at the age of five. Passionate about   prime minister. We never doubted his         European maritime empires and their
Scotland’s dancing heritage, Robin tells     innocence and the record should show         impact upon Africa and around the
his grandchildren how important dance        that we and all those who knew him           world. Balliol has a strong tradition of
and music are for their culture, at a        were right.                                  historical studies, and it has created
time when entertainment is consumed                                                       its own impressive archive to preserve
through screens. He is passionate about      Peter Taylor (1969)                          valuable papers and manuscripts for
intelligent women and promoting equal        Nine PPE and History men gathered            scholarly consultation. It is hoped
opportunities. Each chapter celebrates       in College for a private dinner in           that this virtual archive of slave trade
at least one brilliant woman and her         September 2019 to celebrate the              documents can be made accessible to
gifts to dancing. The book visits many       alarming fact that it was 50 years since     Balliol Fellows, MCR and JCR members
types of dance (contra, English, African,    their matriculation. Pictured left to        alike in the future.
Irish, German, French, Scandinavian,         right: Tony Cothey, Michael Stewart,
flamenco, salsa, ballet, waltzing) but       Michael Donithorn, Richard House,
focuses especially on the Celts and the      Peter Gavan, Peter Taylor, Nicholas
benefits of Scottish dance for mental,
physical and spiritual health. Jokes,
                                             Mansergh, Kenneth Grimshaw,
                                             Nicholas Kenyon (all 1969).
                                                                                          1970s
dance and ghost stories enliven the                                                       Professor Dennis Goldford (1970)
memoir … and a whodunit: who really                                                       Still teaching undergraduates, doing
was Robin’s Scottish grandfather?                                                         some writing, and serving as a political
Read the book to find out. The perfect                                                    analyst for print and broadcast media
Christmas or birthday present.                                                            organisations covering American
                                                                                          elections generally and the Iowa
Lincoln Seligman (1969)                                                                   precinct caucuses in particular, yet
Some five years ago the Metropolitan                                                      beginning to contemplate retirement.
Police embarked on Operation Midland,
an investigation into paedophile                                                          Philip Mansel (1970)
offences allegedly committed by                                                           My book King of the World: The Life of
various senior politicians including                                                      Louis XIV was published by Allen Lane
Sir Edward Heath (1935, Honorary                                                          in July 2019.
Fellow 1969–2005). Operation Midland         Professor Timothy Weiskel (1969)
was followed by Wiltshire police’s           Following on the DPhil work started          Professor Anand Pillay (1970)
Operation Conifer, which concentrated        at Balliol in social anthropology and        I was the Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw
on Edward Heath. The trustees of his         African history more than 50 years ago,      Visiting Professor in the School
charitable foundation, and I as his          I am currently learning more about           of Mathematics, University of
godson, had to work non-stop for             newly available digital technology           Manchester, in June and July 2019.
four years to defend his reputation.         in order to expand an international
That he was eventually exonerated is         community of scholars in Europe,             Professor Ian Williamson (1970)
due in large part to the diligence of        Africa and the Americas and to focus         Currently editing Bruckner’s Symphony
Northumbria Police, who investigated         upon Atlantic slave trade documents.         No. 6 for a new Complete Edition
the source of the allegations, a fantasist   We are starting by ‘digitising’ some of      published by Musikwissenschaftlicher
called Carl Beech. They brought him          the 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century maps       Verlag of Vienna.

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                 Professor Jon Berrick (1971)                 thoroughly revised it. (Needless to say,    Highlands and Islands – my sixth
                 Jon Berrick has retired from National        the references needed a bit of updating     degree since leaving Oxford. I can
                 University of Singapore and Yale-NUS         after four decades!) Plunging into that     now claim to have been a student
                 College, though remaining as Emeritus        material brought back memories of my        at the oldest and one of the newest
                 Professor there (www.yale-nus.edu.sg/        original struggles with it as a Balliol     universities in the country.
                 about/faculty/a-j-jon-berrick/). He’s        graduate student, lo these many years.
                 returned to his hometown, Sydney,                                                        Simon Bishop (1972)
                 where two small grandsons keep him           Ravi Sekhar (1971)                          Still working on cultural history and
                 busy. He is also Honorary Professor          Taking retirement at 45 from a              vintage photography. You can find me
                 at the University of Sydney, Adjunct         comfortable corporate job with an           on LinkedIn. Will soon be looking at
                 Professor at Western Sydney University,      international bank for nearly 25            unusual photographs taken while at
                 and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the    years was the best decision, opening        Balliol in the 1970s. And a painting
                 Australian Mathematical Society.             myriad vistas for self-awareness            of Maurice Keen (Fellow and Tutor
                                                              and enrichment. The next 25 years           in Modern History 1961–2000 and
                 Professor Richard Bronaugh (1971)            have passed in delivering leadership        Emeritus Fellow 2000–2012) in Balliol
                 After 34 years as founding and lead          coaching to C-suite executives in India     Hall, as I was lucky enough to sit next
                 editor of The Canadian Journal of Law and    and abroad under the aegis of a global      to my inspiring old medieval tutor
                 Jurisprudence (CJLJ) I am leaving that       training organisation; travel to near and   on Gaudy night. He was a great and
                 editorial responsibility. The journal flew   far off lands; writing over 800 travel      conscientious tutor.
                 on its own wings until we partnered          reviews for a leading travel advisory
                 with Cambridge University Press              company; attending personal and             Martin Fisher (1972)
                 (CUP) six years ago. This formation has      professional events across the country;     One year in I got a bit bored with
                 resulted in much wider distribution;         and catching up with contemporaries         retirement and trying to be the house
                 indeed, CUP counted worldwide                from Oxford and old friends, putting        ‘domestic goddess’ while my wife
                 145,606 single-article downloads from        social media avenues to good effect.        continues to earn money, so I have
                 CJLJ during the year 2018. I will soon       I have held the position of President       started work as a Citizens Advice
                 count myself as fully retired from the       of the Camford Society – so named           volunteer adviser in Liskeard two days
                 University of Western Ontario, which         because the former outnumbered              a week. Very challenging, and opening
                 I joined in 1962, teaching in both the       the latter – and now offer advice as        up vast areas of law and social need
                 Department of Philosophy and finally         a committee member. I continue to           that had previously passed me by. Still
                 in the Faculty of Law.                       offer mentoring and other coaching          helping run Truro 3 Arts, a chamber
                                                              services on a pro bono basis. Now I am      music winter series of six concerts, and
                 Sir David Gilmour                            working alongside my wife Jyotsna in        now writing all their programme notes.
                 (1971)                                       her social enterprise, Totum, which         Another challenge but a more purely
                 In 2019 Penguin                              aims to empower underprivileged             enjoyable one!
                 published new                                women from the slums in Pune by
                 revised editions of                          teaching them bag weaving, thus             Neil Record (1972)
                 three of my books,                           providing them an opportunity to            Neil Record is still chairman of the
                 Curzon: Imperial                             make a steady income. We celebrated         firm (Record plc) he founded in 1983.
                 Statesman, The                               our 68th birthday recently (we were         He spends more of his time now at the
                 British in India: Three                      born on the same day) and the large         Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), of
                 Centuries of Ambition                        turnout of family, friends, and well-       which he is chairman, and several other
                 and Experience and The Long Recessional:     wishers was wonderful and made our          free-market or right-of-centre think
                 The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling.        day. Our girls, Devika and Namita, are      tanks. He has had a long association
                                                              doing well, the elder pursuing a career     with Nuffield College, Oxford, and is
                 Thomas Sancton (1971)                        in business development with a hotel        now chairman of the Remuneration
                 After a long career at Time magazine,        chain in Mumbai and the younger a           Committee there. He has just retired
                 I am now living in France with my            product strategist in New York. I would     after 12 years as a governor of Magdalen
                 wife Sylvaine. Sylvaine is an artist; I      welcome hearing from others who have        College School, Oxford – presiding,
                 write books. My current project deals        made such mid-career or life changes        inter alia, over the arrival of sixth-form
                 with the notorious 1978 kidnapping           and been richer for it.                     girls at the formerly all-boys school. He
                 of Baron Empain, a leading French                                                        sees quite a few Balliol alumni in the
                 industrialist. Title: The Last Baron.        Simon Walker (1971)                         course of his activities, including Mark
                 Publication is expected in 2022.             I have been appointed Chairman of           Littlewood (1990) and Shanker Singham
                 Before that, however, an American            the UK Trade Remedies Authority, a          (1986) at the IEA and Charlotte Leslie
                 university press is publishing a revised     statutory body which will in future deal    (1997) of the Conservative Middle East
                 and updated version of my Oxford             with anti-dumping and trade disputes.       Council. His eldest son, Chris (2006),
                 DPhil thesis: Sweet Land of Liberty: The                                                 is now a Registrar in Neurology at St
                 French Left Looks at America, 1848–1871. I   John Armstrong-Gregson (1972)               George’s Hospital, Tooting (see page
                 submitted the thesis in 1979, and never      After retiring in 2018, I enrolled on       23). His daughter Helen kicked the
                 thought much about it until last year,       an MLitt course in Viking Studies at        family Balliol habit by going next
                 when I took it out of the drawer and         Orkney College, University of the           door to Trinity College, Oxford. Neil’s

                 9   FLOREAT DOMUS MAY 2020
NEWS AND NOTES
firm Record Currency Management              Christopher Catherwood (1973)               that annually distributes about three
(the main subsidiary of Record plc) is       I am getting used to being a widower –      quarters of a million Bibles and New
a beneficiary of an unusual Record–          thank you to Balliol members such as        Testaments in the UK, facing the
Balliol intern arrangement, in which         Stuart Jamieson (1975) who reached out      challenges of being the safety director
Record encourages applications from          in sympathy, and ongoing profound           for a heritage steam railway at a time
Balliol undergraduates for (well             gratitude to Andrew Whittaker (1974)        when the regulator is taking greater
paid!) internships, leading for the          and his wife Clare and daughters            interest in the sector, and enjoying six
right applicants to permanent full-          Charlotte and Rosie, who have all been      wonderful grandchildren.
time posts. Record currently has five        kindness personified. I am enjoying
permanent staff arising from this            life in the junior university (Churchill    Lawrence Hutter (1973)
intern scheme, ranging in Balliol            College is a wonderful academic home)       Having started Alvarez & Marsal’s now
dates from 2009 to 2015. In return,          and teaching clever American study-         thriving Corporate Transformation
Record sponsors bursaries for Balliol        abroad students for the Wake Forest         Practice in Europe seven years ago, I
undergraduates who are planning to           INSTEP programme in Cambridge               have stepped down from being a full-
go into public or charitable service.        (I am now Academic Director). I am          time partner to a pleasantly flexible
This very happy relationship is now in       still writing history books, enjoying       Senior Advisor role doing the work I
its 11th year, and shows every sign of       attendance at All Saints, Little            enjoy most. This was partly prompted
continuing.                                  Shelford, and slowly catching up on         by being diagnosed with relatively
                                             the rest of life.                           aggressive prostate cancer, which is
Sam Schulman (1972)                                                                      under control, though I had left it
I am relieved to announce that the           The Hon Dr Paul Flather (1973)              a bit late before having a thorough
Two Thousand-Teens just past is the          Here is an image of Dr Paul Flather         medical. If you are in your late 50s
first decade, including the one in           (right), currently a Fellow of Mansfield    or early 60s, get checked regularly! I
which I matriculated, in which I have        College, receiving the Honorary Jan         do not plan to retire because I love
not conceived even one child. The            Masaryk Silver Medal (named after           what I do. I have just accepted the
daughters of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s are    the first democratic Prime Minister of      role of chairman of an innovative and
on their own, or well launched; the son      Czechoslovakia) from His Excellency,        disruptive marketing research and
of the Aughts, now aged 10, demands          the Czech Ambassador Libor Sečka,           analytics business called the Brand
the usual attentions of an energetic         at a special ceremony in London             Experience Group. We are working
young father in his spare moments –          marking the 30-year anniversary of the      on an Investment Memorandum for
fortunately I have many of those. We         1989 Velvet Revolution. He received         those who want to join us on what is
live on a small ex-tobacco farm near         the award for ‘special contributions’       likely to be an exciting and rewarding
Charlottesville, Virginia, and when          supporting the development of the           journey over the next few years as we
not fetching/delivering or playing           Czech and Slovak nations.                   expand globally. The family is thriving.
basketball with a young man, I am                                                        Fae works for Google doing clever stuff
engaged on a couple of book projects                                                     I don’t completely understand; Ben
and polemical articles in defending                                                      is leading his first clinical research
the Jews in spite of our many faults,                                                    programme; Joe is pursuing a career
and carping about and criticising the                                                    in the business of sport and works for
well-meant suggestions of other Jews.                                                    Arsenal FC; Clara has graduated in law
I also help my wife in her university                                                    and is applying for a training contract
admissions marketing consultancy with                                                    (hard); Luc is doing his A levels, is very
more carping and criticism, for which                                                    talented, and I am trying to persuade
she is unable to find words to express                                                   him to apply to Balliol. Philippa holds
her gratitude. We have lived here for 15                                                 it all together, as she has done for the
years now, and our Pathfinder traffic has                                                last 30+ years.
understandably fallen off to an every-
few-years visit from the flood of Balliol                                                Matilda Simon (1973)
men and women we loved to host                                                           I am now retired from lecturing in
when we lived in Manhattan. But it is a                                                  design but I use my engineering skills
fascinating place, full of the kindest and                                               and research background in sustainable
most diverse supporters of the current                                                   design to make furniture and useful
president, and near a college town                                                       items from local hardwood. I also
full of the kindest and most diverse                                                     founded and help run a 3-hectare
despisers of the same chap. Do call.                                                     community woodland, work as a
                                                                                         simulated patient in the medical
Graham Beamson (1973)                        Iain Gray (1973)                            school, volunteer in secondary schools
After nine years of studying courses in      I retired in 2017 after 40 plus years       for Diversity Role Models and am part
earth sciences, astronomy, evolution         in the nuclear industry. As with most       of an art collective who run a gallery in
and statistics with the Open University      Balliol Old Members, life is just as        New Mills. I am oddly proud of having
I have been awarded a BSc (Open, 1st         busy. This includes serving as a regional   been one of the first women at Balliol,
class Honours).                              director for a national Christian charity   even though nobody was aware of it.

                                                                                                           NEWS AND NOTES        10
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