- Both my parents were only children, and I was their only child – yet I had eight half-brothers and sisters
- I built my own guitar
- My father was English, my mother French – they were 2nd cousins
- I have both British and French nationality, I’m Franglais
- I love football, but don’t support any teams although I can’t stand Manchester United
- I worked for the same company, on the same site for 24 years and 7 months, with five different company names on the door. When I left, they didn’t even give me a card.
- I used to be a parent governor at my old high school
- I have no middle name
- I don’t like cabbage or cauliflower. Actually, “don’t like” is nowhere near strong enough
- My guilty pleasure, musically, is Dvořák’s “Stabat Mater”
- I would love to see and cross the Viaduc de Millau in the south of France
- I don’t believe in God, nor am I an atheist. I just don’t do religion.
- I do love to be beside the seaside.
- Politically I’d go for a free, but fair and regulated, market economy. I’d never join a political party.
- I was once summarily smacked at school for beginning a sentence with “Because…”. Thanks, Mr Winterton
- Because of, or despite, this I am pedantic about grammar.
- Favourite food? Probably paella
- I saw Johann Cruyff and George Best play football, and saw David Bowie as the Elephant Man in Denver, Co.
Carving notches on the family tree