When did you join Taylors’?
I joined what was then Northwood Prep in September 1999 as Head of Classics and a teacher of Games. I only planned to stay for 3 years before moving on to other things, but here I am, more than 26 years later! Along the way, I have also been a Head of History, a Director of Studies and I’m also currently in my second stint as Head of TPRE. Now, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
What most excites you about your role and what got you into it?
This is an interesting question since my role is about to change! What has been the greatest privilege about my three years as Assistant Head (Wellbeing) are the conversations I’ve shared with pupils and colleagues. In most of them, I’ve been mainly listening, and I hope that those conversations have been helpful for those I’ve been talking with.
Now, I am very much looking forward to next year: the recent availability of the Head of Classics role drew me back to my first love – the ancient world, and its beautiful and elegant languages. My new role, Head of Culture and Language, will also involve enthusing our pupils about all that culture is, the ideas, customs and achievements of humanity.
What are you most proud of outside of your work at Taylors’?
I’m grateful for the connections that I’ve made in my life more than anything else: Marina, my wife, and I celebrate our silver wedding anniversary this year. It’s been a privilege to see our children, Emily and Noah, enter into the foothills of adulthood. My Christian faith, and the fellowship of my church, where I’m a Lay Leader of Worship, are the points around which my world turns. The brotherhood of a rugby club (Ealing Trailfinders) was really important to me as a young man. Each of my children’s godfathers have been friends since Eastbourne College.
What did you study?
Since I was a boy, I have been fascinated by the mythic, the wonderful and the idea of the quest. My first introduction to this was C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novels. When I discovered the Classical world at school, I met my earliest heroes: Hector, Odysseus and Aeneas. At university level, I studied English Literature and Classical Studies. Shakespeare was the most modern English I opted for! I was much more interested in characters like Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The story of Troy keeps cropping up in English literature, and my dissertation was on women in the Trojan cycle from Homer to Shakespeare.
What piece of media would you recommend and why?
I saw a great quote by the novelist Katie Kitamura the other day: ‘Almost every writer changes my mind – that’s the point of reading.’ I read constantly. Although it will surprise no-one to know that I’m re-reading Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien at the moment, I try to range out as much as possible beyond fantasy and science-fiction into anything interesting: philosophy, theology, history, psychology, biography, to name a few.
I was part of the original Dungeons & Dragons scene when it all started out. I discovered that going on your own quests was as much fun as reading about them, although my ruleset of choice is now Pathfinder 2e. I’m a big fan of Bethesda’s computer games: don’t ask me how many hours play I have logged on Starfield!
My theatre highlight has got to be the recent run of Shadowlands about C.S. Lewis’ marriage to Joy Davidman. I am looking forward to the third season of the excellent Silo in July on Apple+. Music-wise, anything with guitars from Leprous (Nordic metal) to glorious indie, especially James and Florence + The Machine. I’ve seen all of them live in the last 12 months but bouncing up and down to James at the front of a capacity London O2 in April has to be top.
