As testing and reduced rates of infection allow us to enjoy more of each other’s company, cultural, social, and sporting events are proliferating on campus. South marked Remembrance Day with a dignified event in The Plaza. I am most grateful to Charlotte Ward for playing Last Post and Reveille perfectly and with such sensitivity.
Thanks also to Yasmin Daniel for an excellent reading of Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier and to Lee for his fine delivery of J.B. Priestley’s letter home from the trenches. Priestley’s references to sixpenny novels and Chocolate Toffee de Luxe amid the terror of the trenches offer an unforgettable example of literary bathos. It was very good of Jeremy Cook to read the Act of Remembering and the Kohima Epitaph.
On Saturday, I played the role of a talking book in the Cosin’s Library at Palace Green. Thanks to all who 'borrowed me'. I enjoyed the opportunity to explain my motives for becoming a journalist and describe the principles that have motivated me in my career. Others must decide whether they stand up to scrutiny, but I enjoyed the opportunity and I am very grateful to Rebecca Doggwiler for organising this excellent Living Library Event and inviting me to take part. My fellow talking books made excellent company, and none stayed on the shelves for long.
My Sunday was a festival of college sport. I enjoyed watching South’s mixed Lacrosse Team lull Grey College into a false sense of security. I have no doubt we will beat them next time. South Netball A carried out a forensic demolition of a noble but outclassed Hild Bede side. In netball we plainly have great strength, and I look forward to more and greater success. Meanwhile, it was great to see so South Boat Club on the river and introducing enthusiastic novices to the sport. Such interest in rowing augurs well. On Wednesday the 24th of November, our excellent Men’s Football first XI meet John Snow in the Floodlit Cup. Kick Off is at 8.15pm on 3G1 at Maiden Castle. I plan to be there, and I encourage you to support The Owls in this inaugural Mount Oswald Derby.
At our Formal on Friday evening, we will have the company of John Ryley, Head of Sky News. In fifteen years at the top of broadcast journalism, John has won numerous awards including three BAFTA’s and an EMMY. Under his leadership, Sky News has won the Royal Television Society’s News Channel of the Year on twelve occasions. John is a proud Durham graduate. He studied Latin, English and Russian in Hild Bede College between 1981 and 1984. Before dinner, John will join me at my news and current affairs seminar at 4pm in the Pitcairn Building. Please join us.
