EH was away so I was left to chaperone the learned dignitary who had flown in from the US to deliver a guest lecture to the final year students. She was the only British academic to have ever won the most prestigious award in her field, and I was very excited to hear her speak.

Unfortunately the students did not recognise the world leader on the stage before them, nor did they show much interest in her presentation. When the time came for Q&A, nobody raised a hand. Worse still, some students saw the end of the speech as a signal that ‘class’ was over and they started to drift out of the room. The rest soon followed them, leaving me alone with the visitor in the huge empty lecture theatre.

Later I agreed with EH that the best punishment for the students who had exhibited such bad manners would be a series of on-the-spot oral exams – provided that the module descriptor that I had written with BD many years ago allowed for this.