Questions and Answers: Guardian Style

For many years, the Guardian Weekend magazine has featured interviews with a wide range of people in which they are asked the same set of questions. Sometimes I've mused on how I would answer the same questions. Today I've done something about it and here are my immediate responses to those posed in the most recent issue. I think the trick is to give the first thing that springs to mind without 'over thinking'. I'll admit that a few of my responses surprised me - where did those memories come from?

What is your earliest memory?
Crossing the Hall Fields in Bedwas on a moon-lit night with my mother (probably going to my nan's) and talking about the Man in the Moon. I must have been 3 or 4 at the time.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Bruce Kent, on the basis that I respect what he's done, I've learned something significant from him, I respect the way he's conducted himself and I respect the way he treats people. And there are others who fall into the same category.

 What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Disengagement with civic and humanitarian responsibilities and being proud of it.

What is your most treasured possession?
I'm not particularly bonded to anything material.

What would your super power be?
For the longer term benefit of everyone, to have the power to prevent the undoubted consequences of climate change.

What makes you unhappy?
Apart from the deplorable state of the world, anything that makes my family and friends unhappy.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I look the way I look and accept it as that.  Worrying about my appearance has not and does not occupy much of my time.

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
A simpler and less commercial way of life.

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Spike Milligan.

What is your favourite word?
Home.

What is the worst job you've done?
Digging up potatoes in the cold and wet on a farm in Rogerstone when I was in my early teens. And all for a pittance.

What has been your biggest disappointment?
Seeing the collapse of social democracy and the rise of voracious capitalism.

What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?
"You need a triple bypass urgently".

What is top of your bucket list?
Waking up tomorrow and the next day and the next day...

What do you owe your parents?
Given that education is the foundation of my present life style and given that my parents were always fully supportive of my education (and, at times, it would have been very difficult for them financially), I owe them the security I now enjoy.

To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
Susan Jones for an unfortunate incident in the playground at Bedwas Junior Mixed School circa 1957. I know she never forgave me.

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
A mixture of good friends who I know would get on and have a good time.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Walking my children to primary school, holding their little hands and enjoying their dependence on us.

How do you relax?
By being me.

What is the closest you've come to death?
Whilst on a vacation job at the coking plant in Trethomas, I stepped on a wrongly fitted lid on a large oven and almost fell into the furnace beneath.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being closely involved in the work that got a very effective anticonvulsant into patients and made a real difference to their lives. 

What song would you like played at your funeral?
Days from the Ray Davies Choral Collection With The Crouch End Festival Chorus.


How would you like to be remembered?
Without malice.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Don't panic - things always look different in the morning.