Letters

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 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.

Why hasn’t my husband bonded with Rory Kinnear?

Dear Jeremy, I very much enjoyed the recent edition of Atrium which my husband John Matlin (1956-61) lent me, an ostensibly altruistic gesture, most likely prompted by its including the précis of his latest novel, Smoking Gun. Imagine my delight discovering a wealth of articles and interviews I wished to read, primarily about the arts and theatrical world (sport for me is a slog). Though why oh why did John not bond with Pauline creative Rory Kinnear (1991-96)? What is 30 years difference at school, between intended soulmates?

Normally when I think of St Paul’s it is with some bemusement, because when I came to this country I had never encountered a single-sex school. I was educated in an American Midwest high school and co-ed was rife. No boarding, either, which I assumed meant conditions of Colditz captivity, based on the movies. American schools were not interested in imposing school uniforms either – all that much vaunted love of liberty – so John is envious, as he still hates wearing a tie. Time passed and our daughters went to, yup, a single-sex school. As for uniforms, he had to teach them how to wear a tie, as I was hopeless at it, and too busy laughing.

So thank you for the new vistas and retrospectives of Atrium. Next edition I shall grab it first, for myself. Kind regards,

Linda Matlin

Dear Jeremy,

There are many points in Ed Vaizey’s (1981-85) article to take issue with – starting with the creation of the Lottery, not discounted by those in the arts for being invented by a Tory but because it was promised as a supplementary means of funding (for otherwise unaffordable projects over and above an organisation’s main work) but soon revealed as a key part of core funding, subject to competitive bids pitching one arts company against another for diminishing sums, and primarily a way for governments to reduce and minimise their existing commitments to the arts.

More crucially, for Lord Vaizey to gloss the slashing of local councils’ budgets since 2010 as “cuts in local government funding” is to blithely ignore the deliberate policy of shrinking the state driven by Tory Chancellor (and, shamefully, an OP) George Osborne (1984-89) in the guise of “austerity” during the coalition government of which Lord Vaizey was a member. As he must know, the impact on arts provision across the UK – alongside cuts to libraries, youth services, social care and so much else – has been devastating.

In light of this, Lord Vaizey’s apparent surprise at the government’s arts “culture war” is hard to take seriously, while he seems unaware of the true impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 70% of arts practitioners who are self-employed. Proportionately, the arts sector has been harder-hit than any other major business area: actors, musicians, singers, dancers, designers and directors, as well as thousands of technicians, wig, prop and costume makers, stage management and other freelancers, have been deemed ineligible for government furlough schemes or self-employed benefits. It is only thanks to emergency schemes such as the Theatre Artists Fund, founded last year by director Sam Mendes, that many have avoided destitution since their livelihoods and income were abruptly cut off in March 2020.

It is to be hoped that the arts will somehow bounce back from the financial and personal losses of the pandemic, but much of the groundwork for weakening public support for the sector was laid by Lord Vaizey and his colleagues in the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government. Yours sincerely,

Don Keller (1965-70)

(Arts consultant and former Head of Marketing, National Theatre)

Arts Funding – an Alternative View

Dear Jeremy,

Reading Atrium’s Spring/Summer issue, I readily identified with Paul Velluet’s (1962-67) remarks about Tom Howarth (High Master 1962-73) and the ‘Last Word’ of Ralph Varcoe (1984-89); and while not sharing the lack of enjoyment of my creative contemporaries, some of whom I knew well in “In Conversation – It did not break us”, I can understand that St Paul’s, then, probably did not greatly nurture the creative spirit.

Regarding Paul Velluet’s remarks about Tom Howarth, I, too, found him to be a “remote figure, primarily interested in high flyers...with only limited interest in the average Pauline”. Indeed, while interviewing my parents, before I was admitted to the School, and in a scene reminiscent of the film “if....”, he said, “We make no apology for being an elitist institution”.

TEBH’s values were brought home to me when I went to say my farewells to him. After the “long walk” to his desk, he looked up and asked which “College” (as in Oxbridge) I was going to. I replied, “I’m not going to University, sir; I’m going to be a journalist”. That was it. The conversation went no further, and he simply wished me “Good Luck”.

I would also criticise his decision, in conjunction with the Governors, to abolish the CCF. The reason he gave at ‘Prayers’ for its abolition was that “there was no longer a place in a modern school for a military institution like the CCF”. It is ironic that many CCFs are now flourishing, particularly in state schools.

Mr Howarth was very defensive of the school’s reputation. When smoking cannabis was commonplace (this was the ‘Summer of Love’), I wrote a short story for Folio entitled ‘Through the Haze’ about drug taking. It was set in an unspecified school. Before the piece could be published, the High Master required the word “school” to be replaced by “college” so the school’s reputation was saved.

Despite only being an “average Pauline”, I enjoyed my time at St Paul’s, and realise now that, despite its limitations, the liberal education that the school gave me has stood me in good stead in later life, including during my time on the Acton Gazette.

Good luck

Yours aye,

Mike Ricketts (1963-68)

Don Pirkis – dedicated to his craft

Dear Jeremy, Tim Venner’s letter about Don Pirkis (Geography Department 1955-86) in the Spring/Summer issue of Atrium took me back to around 1970.

Don was nothing if not dedicated to his craft. I recall him showing us some slides of a glacier he had taken on his honeymoon. “My wife is there for scale,” he said.

Best wishes,

Jeremy Gaunt (1966-1971)

Crowthorne and other memories

Dear Jeremy, I was at Meadhurst at Crowthorne with your father Tim (1942-49), who I was not very close to as he was a prefect but knew him well and admired him – cigarette out of the corner of his mouth (after hours of course). These were the days of my great friend Seamus Flannery (1942-47), the Carless brothers (1941-47), Peter Cook (1945-48) (Editor: dad’s best man and my brother Stephen’s (1973-78) godfather) and my special music buddies Stanley Sadie (194148) and Richard Huggett (1941-47).

I was an outsider being heavily into music especially jazz, which was greatly disapproved of by our housemaster Chris Heath (Maths Department 1927-56), especially when I practised my saxophone or tuned the common room radio to the Glenn Miller Band.

I joined the School just after Dennis Brain (1934-36) left so I missed meeting one of my music heroes. Another hero was Paul Nash (1903-06). I was turned on to modern art by an original painting of his, which I used to stare at during art lessons at Easthampstead Park.

After Crowthorne I remember arguing endlessly with Chris Barber (1946-47) the merits of trad jazz and my crusade for the new sounds of modern jazz (bebop), which I am still playing! Best regards,

Derek Coleman (1942-48)

Not fitting the mould

Dear Editor, In one issue you have confounded my memories and expectations of St Paul’s.

Like Ralph Varcoe, whose touching and impressive piece so mirrored my own sense of the School as a pupil, I cordially detested the place, especially for its deadly insistence on the two solitary arguments for success – academia and sport. And I even sent my children to Westminster to ensure no further family contamination, BUT…

Of course how wrong and immature I was not to have felt the values of that struggle for a sense of self-worth, the bloody mindedness to stick things and succeed. Wrong also because the heroes who would have given me courage were there, and I did not look for them: the Duncan Grants (1899-1902), Chris Barbers (1946-47), Paul Nashes (1903-06), Martin Bradleys (1946-47).

Congratulations on an issue that genuinely captures what else St Paul’s did for those of us who did not immediately fit the mould. Warm regards,

Adam Munthe (1959-64)

 Michael Manning (with thanks to Rory Johnston (1962-63) for the photographs)

Michael Manning is remembered

Dear Jeremy, I refer to a letter from Rupert Birtles (1963-66) in the last edition about Michael Manning (1962-66). I have a poor memory for people but remember Michael well as he was in the History Eighth with me. He was a cheeky, happy, active chap with a wicked sense of humour and absolutely brilliant academically. We all expected him to have a sparkling career when we said our goodbyes.

My mother and father had a pub at Goring at the time and I remember someone coming to the bar for a drink and saying a youngster had drowned in the river a short distance from the pub whilst preparing for Henley. Learning his name was a shock. Rupert says he seems to be forgotten forever but I never forgot him and have often thought about that tragic waste of a shining talent.

I would have been playing with him in that 4th XV if not AWOL with the Ealing Wasps football team (which had a large number of renegade soccer-loving Paulines) alongside your legendary former editor Simon Bishop (1962-65)! With best wishes,

Jon Sandham (1962-66)

Michael Manning

Dear Jeremy, I have just seen Rupert Birtle’s appeal for recollections about Michael Manning, published in Atrium. I knew him very well at School and his death was a huge shock. I remember meeting my friend Stephen Mayer (1962-67) in the bottom corridor of the West Kensington building in my last year there. He was looking agitated and waving a publication (I forget what it was). “What a tragedy”, he said. If I remember rightly, Michael caught cramp while swimming in the Thames and the current took him away.

Michael Manning was lively, gifted, provocative and successful. He had won a Demyship to Magdalen Oxford. I imagine he would have been awarded it on his interview performance alone, though that is a guess.

John Smith (Classics Department 1962-98) loved Greece and proposed an Easter school trip. Only three pupils made the journey, Ashley Badcock (1961-66), Michael and myself. We motored all the way across Germany, Switzerland and Italy, by the way never at more than 40 mph. John slept in his mini-van; the three boys were under canvas, especially tough when fighting Italian mosquitoes. 1965 Greece was very special – Michael, Ashley and I ran at Delphi, danced round (or on) café tables at the foot of the Acropolis, watched disappointed Greek fishermen pull in their empty nets, ate fresh squid and yoghurt at Igoumenitsa.

We knew each other so much better at the end of the trip. Michael had a huge personality and was evidently destined for great things – “What a tragedy” indeed. Best wishes,

Chris Atkinson (1962–67)

Probably the finest man I ever met

Dear Jeremy, I read the article in the latest Atrium about Tony Jones (1936-41). It brought back many happy memories of the man.

In 1980, I applied for the job as IT Manager (then known as Data Processing Manager) at Saga Holidays. For no special reason, at the interview I wore my Old Pauline tie. The man across the desk from me immediately recognized the tie and we started talking about our respective days at St Paul’s. He mentioned that he had been a Major-General but never then or in the next three years during which time I got to know him very well did he ever talk about his days in the Army and indeed never mentioned that he had won a MC. He was, without doubt, the most modest man I have ever met and I can understand why people would follow him into battle.

Tony was probably the finest man I ever met. Best regards,

John Frankel (1962-66)