1956-1963

Danvers

Mr. Wells was an inspired maths teacher, as was that complete gentleman "Tom" Wilson; Mr. Harris taught French - and was an FRCO, and played the piano for assembly nearly every morning. Guy Boas called his wife "Pussy" (I think) - and I *would* have played Brutus in his last Shakespeare production (Julius Caesar) ... but it was cancelled (mumble, complain). We had (heaven help us!) a complete, printed copy of the Greater Oxford Dictionary in the library - and I loved it! Mr. Stockwell (alas he is now the Late Mr. Stockwell) was a wonderful Physics teacher (and his son was at the school too), and he had sight in only one eye.

I am still in touch with A. C. Spooner (Tony), who is a year younger than me, and Ian Dale ("Jim") (who was my Best Man - and I was his: alas, he is with us no more), as well as David Brooks ("Gumbrush"). After A-levels I went to University College, London, to get a B.Sc. (Special) in Mathematics. I then went in to the computing industry, ending up as a computer systems consultant - and (boring, boring!) an expert in very large databases. And I mean *very* large.

I'm now supposed to be retired - but (you've guessed it!) I'm working on implementing the world's largest database - and writing another book. Well, with the passing of time I have now finished with the database - but I'm still writing books.

I was born in Dublin. Why this very English Englishman was born "there" but lives "here" is a long and involved story, involving great sorrow (for my lovely parents), and making a restart in life (for my poor, poor father). Ask me, and I shall tell you the story.

When I started at Sloane I lived in Kensington - just north of the High Street. But then I moved to Hampstead - Belsize Park, to be precise - and it took a long time by Northen Line/District Line or 31 bus to get there.

The road traffic was different then. I lived north of Kensington High Street, but the Sunday School and Church I attended were south of that main road. But on a Sunday morning I would set out - alone - to walk there. There were so few cars on the roads that crossing them was safe, even for a small boy.

Malborough, Chelsea.

Bellows, 11A Burrow Hill Green
Chobham
Woking
Surrey GU24 8QP

Email: idkk@idkk.com

01276 857 599

07957 101 430

I was married in Caxton Hall on 30th March 1969, to the lady to whom I am still married. The best thing I ever did in my life. (*big grin*). She's the lady in my profile picture, if you want to see what she looks like.

...and now, after nearly fifty years of marriage, we are grandparents - whoopee!!!

... update: after *over* 50 years of marriage, we are grandparents for the second time - double whoopee!!

I love music: I play the piano and the church organ (every week!), and conduct choirs. I have also written (and published) a number of books - a children's novel, a set of short stories drawn from the religions of the world, two pantomime scripts and two much more serious books on Computational Linguistics (Machine Translation - getting computers to translate between human languages). I've written two books containing my music - both published - and let me tell you Proofreading is hell! I am currently writing yet another book on the subject of Interstellar Travel - and that's a harder one to write. Worse than that, I am writing a paper on mathematical physics, to do with the structure of light (boring, boring!).

I intend, in my retirement, to learn to speak Classical Greek and Farsi (Persian). And, yes, I have a use for both of these languages - though whether I will get the real time to learn them, I don't yet know. Why were we not warned that you are busier in retirement than in employment?

Sport? What's that????

Gosh - I don't know! I think Meryl Streep is fantastic. I like Titanic, and Breakfast at Tiffanys, and Shrek, and The Third Man, and Star Wars, and Les Parapluis de Cherbourg, and Bergman's The Silence. I would love to see more ballet - both classical and modern. And Pinter, Noel Coward, George Bernard Shaw ... hey, this list could be long!... all excite me.

The Theory of Celestial Influence, Rodney Collin. The C Programming Language, Kernighan & Ritchie. All of Terry Pratchett's works - especially the later ones. Philip Pullman's writing is marvelous, as is everything by George Perec. The Art of Computer Programming, Donald Knuth. And - most important of all - The Bible... preferably in the old translation (KJV - "Authorised Version").

I read many myths and fairy stories - they could be thought of as the Science Fiction of the past, even though they point to the deeper parts of the world as it is, and how it can become.

Lenny Henry. All the idiots in Red Dwarf. The tales of Mullah Nasrudin (and that's one of the reasons I am learning Farsi - Persian - so I can read these tales in the original).

None... The Sunday Times and the Observer and the TLS ... but nothing regularly.

I hate intolerance. I hate bureaucracy. I hate power-grabbing wastrels (i.e. nearly all politicians). I hate greed.

If I were not such a nice fellow (ahem!) I would quote some public names of people upon whom I would willingly pour vituperation... but for politeness sake I shall restrain myself... for now.

The final unfinished fugue from Bach's "Art of Fugue". I want this because it peters out, rather than finishes properly - Bach died before he had dictated it all. It is like a conversation in a room you are leaving, and can no longer hear because the door closes behind you - but the conversation still goes on, out of your hearing. Bach knew what the real end of that fugue would be - though we do not. In heaven I shall hear it completed. It is, for me, symbolic of death being not an ending, but a passing from one state to another.

This is the key of the kingdom
Of the kingdom this is the key.

In the kingdom there is a city
In the city there is a town
In the town there is a street
From the street there leads a lane
By the lane there is a yard
In the yard there is a house
In the house there is a room
In that room there is a bed

And on the bed lies a basket -
A basket of sweet flowers.

Flowers in the basket,
Basket on the bed,
Bed in the room,
Room in the empty house,
House in the draughty yard,
Yard by the winding lane,
Lane to the long road,
Road in the high town,
Town in the great city.

City in the kingdom.

This is the key of the kingdom,
Of the kingdom this is the key.