Marcus Brigstocke had set the exam paper so it was only natural that it was also he who accompanied me and my sister J to the stationers. Here we would purchase some scrap paper on which I could plan my essay answers.

My preference was for coloured multiple-lined paper of the type that was sold by Gibert Jeune on the Boulevard St Michel in Paris in the early 1980s. After much hunting around we found what we were looking for and paid for it. It was only when we opened the pack out on the street that we discovered that this paper was already used. On the reverse of each blank sheet there were notes about French literature in my very own hand. These dated back to my undergraduate days in France over thirty years ago.

When J and I eventually returned to the White House in Stockton-on-Tees, we learnt (40 years late) that (1) Grandpa H had died, (2) our father had taken up residence in a hospital fridge, and (3) our sister S had transformed the upstairs pantry into her new bedroom.