127 whoever he was. I did it slightly more slowly this time. I asked: (1) to what exactly was I invited? (2) and what exactly am I meant to say? I received an email by return. The reply which I received confirmed that without doubt Mr Michael Willis, Head of Politics was indeed Young Mr SkippyWillis. What he wrote was exactly the reply he would have written 30 years ago. By that I mean it was not the reply which he would have written to me some 30 years ago. It was the reply he would have written about me to some supposedly distinguished old boy who he’d invited to speak to the Sixth Form. The references to the members of this Society are exactly the references that Mike would have made to me. This is the email. Jon (1)The Purpose is to have a good meal and I suppose teach the socially ignorant sons and daughters of Essex men what a formal dinner is like. The Head will be there, and I’m afraid you’ll probably be stuck between him and me. The Head will love you as an OB QC and academic writer as long as there’s no sex in your speech. The Society is for more academic or pseudo- academic VI Formers. Actually we let anyone in, and the intake is nothing like the intellectual calibre of your day. (2) It’s just an after-dinner speech for you to give. Some reminiscence will go down well - entirely up to you. Taking the mick out of me goes down well (but it’s best if the thing is not too incestuous). Some of the sort of ideas in Swinesend would be excellent; everyone will enjoy them apart from perhaps the Head. They’ll want a laugh, and don’t take the bit about being reverential in anything except a sarcastic way. For time, say around 10-15 minutes – can be longer or shorter as you wish. I must pretend to teach now, but very many thanks and I hope this isn’t too off-putting. Mike So, there we have it. I was supposed to give an empathetic but (sarcastically) reverential speech with no sex and not too much incest in it. Well, I composed a speech which I thought had just enough irreverence, sex
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