Happy birthdays
Sir: I was greatly pleased to learn from Mr Bill Grundy's press column (28 February) of the fifty-first birthday of Dom Aelred Wat- kin. Mr Grundy mentioned that he didn't have 'the slightest idea who Dom Aelred Watkin is.'
Dom Aelred Watkin once taught me medi- aeval history. He is a stocky man, a little below the medium height, with black and grey hair and piercing blue eyes. He is habitually to be seen in the habit of a Benedictine monk. This is because he is a Benedictine monk. Whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge he took a double first, and when teaching me mediaeval history he would hurl a leather-bound volume at my head if I interrupted him. He did not mind if I hurled it back. I attended his history class twice a day for four years, and he devoted half these lessons to reading aloud from such books as Alice in Wonderland, Sinister Street and The Diary of a Nobody. Needless to say, this method ensured a remarkable 'lumber of
university awards. He is an eccentric teacher and a brilliant one.
I am afraid that I am unable to help Mr Grundy over the identity of either Sir Michael Dillwyn-Venables-Llewelyn or Sir Orb!. Bootham; but perhaps you, sir, could answer a question for me.
Who is this Grundy? And why, on turning to your press column, do I have to read his name in 14 point serif capitals above an announcement that he is ignorant of the iden- tity of my former history master?
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