ILLUSTRATION: MH JEEVES
Miranda and I have just been on a tour of the UK’s northern provinces. I felt like a Roman emperor going up to see the legion on Hadrian’s Wall, inspecting the forts and mile castles, saying, ‘Well done, chaps. Keep it up.’ As if I don’t give Miranda enough excitement. I have been to Norfolk to see her old home, schools and her two sisters, so fair do’s, I wanted to take her where I grew up and was educated.
We went first to Durham and had a night in the castle, the home of University College since 1837 – by a total coincidence, staying in the same room on Hall Stairs I had in my third year back in 1957. Miranda swooned at the beauty and wonder of it all, never having been in Durham before. We had a grand dinner in the castle’s Great Hall and also joined a procession in Durham Cathedral. Guess what that was for?