Most memorable/fondest memory of Univ? I'm not bipolar enough for this questionnaire. I remember feeling greatly privileged to inhabit these splendid, if under-heated,ruins, to drop in on Freddie Ayer addressing hundreds of people about sense data and Gilbert Ryle explaining that "thinking aloud" is not a metaphor, as well all sorts of smaller discussions, especially the tutorials, whose format much influenced my ideas about training lawyers. Falling in the river, the Greats Dining Club, bad tennis on the rare sunny afternoons, it was a good place for these things.  

Awkward moments at Univ? Catching my foot in the jaws of a tiger skin rug on the way out of one of the Master's sherry parties.

The most important thing I learnt? The meaning of meaning.

Most important thing you wish you had learnt at Oxford? Pass: I don't mind where I learn things.

Percent satisfaction with Oxford? 110. Maths was not in the syllabus.

Proudest achievement of my career? Pass- I don't have these peaks and troughs.

Lowest point in my life? And again.

Adjective that best describes career? Adjective, eh? Snakes-and-ladderish.

% of potential achieved? Data set inadequate.

Most significant unfulfilled ambition? Pass.

Level of optimism about medium-term future of the world? So long as the experimental financial system, dating perhaps from 1971, can be made to work and a reasonably cheap solution to global warming is arrived at, mankind may rub along for a bit longer. The planet will probably be just fine.

Professional Life: In 1966 I arrived at the LB of Croydon as an articled clerk, and left the post of assistant director advising on planning and highways law in 1978. I worked at the late Department of the Environment until 1984, dividing my time about 50/50 between planning litigation and building Parliamentary work, with a dabble in water law. I then joined the Office of Fair Trading for three years to advise on competition law, and left the post of Assistant Director in charge of that function in 1998, having found the place more interesting than I expected. 

Personal Life: I met Christine, my wife, while travelling in Greece in the long vac of 1964. We married in 1967, settled in Surrey, and were often to be found in the air or on the road when work permitted. We left the business of child bearing to the rest of you. In 1998 we bought two motorcaravans, one in England and one in New Zealand, and set off for a bit more exposure to lakes, seas and mountains, especially in Greece, NZ, Australia and South America (where a 4x4 is a better bet than a camper). These days we spend about 6 months at home and spring in the European mountains.

In November we shall go to pick up the motorcaravan in store in Melbourne.