ATRIUM CONTRIBUTORS
Listed below are those who contributed to the magazine. Graham Seel taught at St Paul’s 2012-21. He was Head of History 2012-17 and Head of Humanities 2017-21. Owen Toller taught at St Paul’s 1977-88 and 2006-19. He was Head of Mathematics 2007-16. Keith Pratt (1951-56) National Service fed his lifelong love of travel, especially in East Asia on which much of his career was focussed. After teaching Chinese for over 30 years, the administrative demands as Head of East Asian Studies in Durham University led him to take early retirement in 1997 and then, after a heart attack in Taiwan, to concentrate on Korean studies. He enjoyed the presidency of the British Association for Korean Studies and published his two most successful books on Korean history. Now his Chinese priorities are focussed on his Taiwanese daughter-in-law and her family. Robin Hirsch (1956-61) is an Oxford, Fulbright and English-Speaking Union Scholar, who has taught, published, acted, directed and produced theatre on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1977 together with two other starving artists, he founded the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York’s Greenwich Village. In 1987 the City of New York proclaimed it “a culinary as well as a cultural landmark.” Cornelia Street Cafe is now ‘in exile’ having been forced to close by greedy landlords. Paul Cartledge (1960-64) was an undergraduate in Mods and Greats at New College Oxford and a Junior Research Fellow at University College before holding permanent teaching positions at successively the New University of Ulster, Trinity College, Dublin, the University of Warwick and latterly Cambridge University, from which he retired – as the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture – in 2014. He currently holds an A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellowship at Clare College, Cambridge. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of some 30 books, most recently Democracy: A Life and Thebes: the Forgotten City of Ancient Greece. He is an honorary citizen of (modern) Sparta, a Commander of the Order of Honour (Greece), and President of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (UK). But above all else he is a Vice-President of the Old Pauline Club. Rory Johnston (1962-63) came to St Paul’s from St Paul’s in the USA, aiming to go to Cambridge. That did not happen, and his university career in the USA was abortive. Back in Britain, having been a failure as a student he turned to teaching, lastly as head of the Maths Department at The Hall School, Hampstead. Several of his pupils are now QCs and MPs. He then worked in the computer industry, notably for the Xerox Corporation while it was inventing the Macintosh, and in 02
ATRIUM
AUTUMN / WINTER 2021
journalism, print and radio, with two books published. For a time he wrote a column on technology for Vogue. Since 1996 he has been living in California, pursuing the family trade as a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Simon Bishop (1962-65) is a former editor of Atrium. He has worked in publishing for most of his professional life including as art editor for Time Out magazine and for BBC Wildlife magazine. Rupert Birtles (1963-66) read Law at St Peter’s College Oxford and served articles with Fieldfisher in London. He had a long career in the RAF worldwide followed by a third career in local government in the UK. He has spent the last 6 years in historical research alongside restoring a listed 18th century farmhouse in Norfolk. He apologises for having lost a number of past contacts. Bob Phillips (1964-68) went to Churchill College, Cambridge. Since then he has been a GMWU shop steward in a bleach works, a social worker, a university lecturer in psychology at Cambridge, a director of a Midlands company making sewers, and a partner in E&Y, running their Philadelphia management consulting office. In retirement, he writes books. Leon Lecash (1965-67) is a photographer and television producer. After leaving St Paul’s at 16, he became a fashion photographer in London, Paris and Milan. On moving to Los Angeles he specialised in photographing album covers. His Pat Benatar album cover for Crimes of Passion has recently been named one of the top 100 album covers of all time. One current project is John Lennon Made Me Toast about a chance encounter with The Beatles when he was at St Paul’s. Bruce Balden (1969-73) went to University College Oxford. He worked in insurance for a couple of years and then went into teaching: 18 years in Tower Hamlets and then 17 years at St Albans School. He has written GCSE and A Level papers as well as contributing to a series of textbooks. Having retired in 2016 he has been called back to help out seven times. He is now looking forward to retiring for the 8th and final time. He may be familiar as a participant in the 7UP documentary series. Mark Schofield (1973-77) after graduating from Keble College, Oxford with a degree in history, joined BP in London and then moved with the media company Petroleum Argus and helped establish their presence in the US. After meeting his wife in Houston he moved to New York and spent 14 years brokering and trading energy derivatives. He then switched careers and joined Fine Woodworking magazine and spent 12 happy years touring the US photographing some of the finest cabinet makers and editing their articles. Now retired, he rises at 5.30am most mornings to row on the Housatonic in Connecticut with Saman Majd (1969-73).
Matthew Conrad (1979-84) after studying Economics at Cambridge, Matthew practised as an Intellectual Property lawyer and then spent the next 25 years changing careers to the soundtrack of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. In 2015 he finally found it when he joined the pioneering West London Free School. He trained and taught Mathematics at the school until 2020 when he escaped London for rural West Sussex with his wife Claire and his son Nathaniel. Matthew now teaches at the Weald Community School in Billingshurst. When not in the classroom, you will find him with Claire and Nathaniel wandering the footpaths around their home with their year old border terrier Mabel. Jonny Dymond (1983-87) went to the University of Durham back when St Paul’s barely recognised such a place existed, and then to the London School of Economics. He joined the BBC where he worked as a producer and reporter at Westminster, then as a correspondent in Istanbul, Brussels, Washington and a fair few places in between. He currently presents Radio 4’s The World This Weekend and is also Royal Correspondent for BBC News. Theo Hobson (1985-90) studied English Literature at York, then Theology at Cambridge. He has written some books on religion, and many articles. He has worked as a teacher as well as a writer and journalist. He recently went to art college, so he is now a struggling artist as well as a struggling writer. Lorie Church (1992-97) away from the workplace, Lorie encourages people to put letters in little squares. He has had puzzles published in various titles internationally. As well as contributing to the Listener series, Mind Sports Olympiad and Times Daily, he sets Atrium’s crossword. Mark Lobel (1992-97) is BBC World News Reporter and Presenter and former BBC Political Correspondent. Kareem Tayara (2003-08) went to Van Mildert College, Durham. After leaving university, he moved to Dubai to become the fifth employee at a strategy consulting company. He later joined an emerging and frontier market asset management company – to help with marketing and investor relations and investing in start-ups in the developing world. He volunteers at CodeBrave, a charity that provides tech education to children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Lebanon. After 10 years living in Dubai, he has now become a digital nomad, splitting his time between London, Dubai and Lebanon.
