OP News

Tom Roper (1973) was awarded the Cyril Cuthbert Barnard Prize by the Health Libraries Group Committee in recognition of outstanding services to medical librarianship.

John Steele (1982) was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours for his services to sport. Starting his illustrious career as a professional rugby player, John moved into coaching Northampton Saints and held various leadership roles including Chief Executive at UK Sport, and Chair of the English Institute of Sport. We are delighted to report that on 7 September Hannah Parker (2010) successfully swam across the English Channel to raise money for the Karuna Trust in memory of Rajen Mahendra (2010), Prostate Cancer UK and MS Society. Hannah raised over £18,000 for the three causes. She spent over 14 hours in the water and became the 2,631st person to complete a solo swim of the Channel. The journey of a lifetime, and a fantastic achievement.

Sofia Baldelli (2018) has been appointed as President of Oxford University’s Atalanta Society which promotes and supports women in sport within the university. In her role she has created accessible resources to make it easier to report incidents of sexual harassment within sport and continues to campaign for the “overhaul” of the university’s sexual harassment reporting and welfare system.

Cameron Mackenzie (2020) rowed as one half of a winning boat at the 2021 British Universities & Colleges Sport Regatta. Cameron rowed alongside Matthew Edge for Cambridge, as pair ‘A’ in the Men’s Championship Lightweight Regatta. Junior Rowing News quoted the pair as ‘the pair to beat; rumour has it that they’ve been keeping pace with the heavyweight pairs...’ which they did!

James Perry (2013) has co-founded Foodstuff, the new UK food delivery service, which champions independent restaurants, pays riders the Living Wage and delivers with zero emissions. Since launching in May 2020 to help local businesses in Cambridge survive during the pandemic, Foodstuff has delivered over 50,000 orders and has 110 restaurants on the platform across 14 cities, the most recent of which are Bath and Oxford. The company is in the process of building a dedicated mobile app, and hopes to expand into London next year.

Jonathan Chan (2018) appeared on University Challenge in September, as Captain of the St John’s College, Cambridge team, where he is studying Veterinary Medicine. Although the team lost their first match, as one of the highest scoring losers, they returned and were victorious in their play-off match against UCL. They now progress to the second round. Jonathan would like to thank his former teachers Mr Roberts and Miss Freeman, who organised the Schools’ Challenge during his time at The Perse.

Book Publications

A Victorian Curate: A Study of the Life and Career of the Rev. Dr John Hunt by David Yeandle (1973) is an absorbing personal account of the corruption and turmoil in the Church of England in the 19th century. Former staff and Past Parent Maggie James has published the thrilling novel No Way Home: A Novelised Memoir. The book tells the story of a young mother navigating her new life in Saudi Arabia, and much of the story draws on Maggie’s own experiences living and teaching there for five years.

Chris Haslam (1983) published Orla and the Serpent’s Curse, his first book for children, in April 2020. An adventure story, the book follows Orla and Dave the dog as they try to stop the curse of an ancient Cornish witch. Chris will return with the sequel, titled Orla and the Magpie’s Kiss, in April 2022. You can also read Chris’ travel column in The Sunday Times.

Holly Race (2003) has recently published A Gathering Midnight, the sequel to her young adult fantasy novel, Midnight’s Twins, which follows Fern and Ollie as they discover the dangerous world we go to when we sleep, and fight to bring down a populist politician who is using dreams to brainwash the country. The final book in the trilogy, A Midnight Dark and Golden, will be published in June 2022.