I was back at Bursar school today - this time with Hilary to do the Egyptian outreach with Year 3. The children were as well behaved and well prepared as the younger ones last week.

This time I met the school secretary, and guess what? I was at school with her - Julie Favell - in the same year but a different class until the sixth form. We shared a room on a school expedition to Rome in 1969 or thereabouts and were in the Guides together. And her grandma was our cleaning lady for a while. We haven't seen each other for 35 years.

An even briefer encounter also 35 years ago was when I went for an interview for the drama course at Hull University. I got into conversation with a first year student called Tony (I remember the name because it is also my father's, but I have no recollection of what he looked like). I wonder how many Tonys were studying drama at Hull then, and whether the lad I talked to was Anthony Minghella. Whether it was or not, I am sorry to see that this gifted film director has died when he should still have had so much more time to do all he wanted to do.