Nostalgia Interviews With Chris Deacy

My guest this week is stand up comedian Andy White. We start by talking about his victory on ‘The Weakest Link’ in 2002 and how the prize enabled him to pay for his wedding. Andy tells us about the work he has done for the National Autistic Society and we talk about our apprehension of ‘slightly obscure celebrities’. We learn how he ended up at university - Andy initially went to Aston to study town planning and then moved to Lampeter to study English where he enjoyed rattling tins for Rag and going to London to protest against the BNP. Andy explains why he didn’t mind that Lampeter was in the middle of nowhere and how he threw himself into it, and we talk about the political careers of some of the people who studied there and some of the eccentric figures that populated Lampeter. We find out how Andy got into stand up and how petrified he was when he did his first gig and then found that the microphone wasn’t working. He tells us about the different ways to ‘read’ an audience, and the difference bet

My guests this week are Elizabeth and George Severn. We learn about their respective periods of studying at the University of Kent and about George’s tactical decision to move to a Joint Honours degree programme so that he could go on a Year Abroad. We learn why his years in Spain have been the best of his life and why he felt like a ‘nosy anthropologist’ when he returned there. George talks about having Asperger’s and how a logistical problem resulted in time spent in a Spanish institution where he wrote a thousand words a day. He talks about autism, going to university ‘at the right time’ and the merits of keeping a diary and how Elizabeth’s diaries inspired George to do Philosophy. George talks about why we often need to put on a performance in life and they both reveal their love of pens. We discuss the importance of handwriting and the place of social media, and the audience of our Facebook posts and the importance of editing. George explains why he is the same person on social media as he is in re

Alvise Sforza Tarabochia lectures in Italian Studies at the University of Kent. In this fascinating interview we discuss Alvise’s love of heavy metal, his degree in Philosophy from his native Italy and why the prospect of doing a PhD in Philosophy was not the right path for him. We learn that Alvise grew up wanting to be a surgeon and that his mother is a retired academic in the history of medieval art and his father is a civil engineer. We talk about the change in academic culture and ask the big ‘what if?’ questions, and Alvise explains why he’s glad he didn’t become a medical doctor. From childhood, Alvise remembers going fishing with his parents as well as skiing and playing in a band, and we talk about what happens when one ends up living someone else’s dream. He reveals how he ended up in a heavy metal band and the pleasure involved in that, and we talk about a film we have both seen, ‘Lords of Chaos’, about the founding myth of black metal. We also discuss his interest in film, especially ‘Sta

Timothy Brittain-Catlin is an architect and Reader in the Kent School of Architecture, and we begin this insightful and informative interview by talking about buildings which elude even architects and how some of us are more image based and others function using words. Timothy also discloses why he thinks the Sat Nav is the work of the devil. Timothy talks about growing up just within the boundaries of inner London, and the notion of ‘rebuilding’ the past. He has a very vivid memory when it applies to buildings and Timothy reveals how one theme that does tend to repeat in his dreams is that of going back somewhere he once lived, and how this underlies all his work on architecture. We move on to a wider discussion about what dreams are about, and rationalizing the irrational. His mother was a public relations executive and Timothy recounts the time that the family moved to Scotland, and he talks about having a voice coach during his time in Israel and how image is conveyed through accents. We also learn

It was a great pleasure for this week’s Nostalgia Interview to meet Lorraine Millard who has been a therapist since around 1984 and works at the University of Kent. We talk about how she has a job which deals with authenticity and how great an honour that is, and we discuss the evolution of student support over the years and the leap that students have to make from school to university. The conversation then turns to student debt and the different ways in which students will, or will not, interact with their peers. Lorraine speaks about how she stumbled into her career and we learn that she studied Literature, Philosophy and Drama in Higher Education. We discuss how you don’t really know what you want to do until you start the journey and Lorraine talks about an individuation, in Jungian terms, in each person and how we cultivate happiness. Lorraine talks about the joys of therapy and who would have supplied that role in the days before professional therapists and Lorraine discusses the importance of be

Philip Boobbyer, Reader in History and a specialist on Russia, is my guest this week. Philip has been at the University of Kent since 1995, and we begin the interview by discussing the changes he has witnessed over the years. Philip grew up in Oxford to a sports-loving family and whose parents worked for a Christian charity. Philip talks about how faith has changed the way he looks at the world, and we move on to talk about how we tend to find later in life the same characteristics in ourselves that we recognized in our earlier selves. Philip talks about the popular music he heard when he was growing up and how he felt ambivalent about it, and how he came to prefer more folk-based music. We learn about how he studied Modern Languages at Cambridge and how he hadn’t planned to go into academia, and Philip reveals how the ‘academic door’ opened for him. We learn about the trips Philip made to Russia just before Gorbachev came to power and why it was both scary and fascinating at the same time, and how the

My guest this week is Revd. Dr. Trystan Hughes, an Anglican vicar in the Church in Wales and a tutor in Applied Theology. We talk about growing up in North Wales and doing all of his schooling through the medium of Welsh, and we discuss the advantages of having a multi-lingual education, as well as the evolution of school education and the eleven-plus. Trystan talks about how he was obsessed with football stickers as a child (and the search for the elusive missing sticker), how he would listen to classical music and then about how he made the evolution to pop music, and why a schoolfriend was teased for being a Spandau Ballet fan. We talk about how this is all bound up in identity, and we learn why Trystan was obsessed with The Jam and music that carried a message, and how his children know all the words of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Nothing Rhymed’. We find out how it was love that resulted in Trystan remaining in North Wales when he went to university, and we learn about how he came to do a PhD on the Roma

My guest this week is Mary Sullivan who undertook a long journey towards doing a degree in History and Religious Studies at the University of Kent, having previously worked as a psychiatric nurse and a social worker. We talk about her previous experience of going to Ruskin College, Oxford which specialized in offering education for working class people, and about how the two sides of her degree blended so well. We discuss the advantages of studying Religious Studies, including finding out about faiths different to one’s own and I ask Mary whether her own perception of herself changed during the course of her degree. Mary shares her earliest memory, from the time she was in her cot, and she discusses her family’s Irish roots. She has since reacquainted with an old childhood friend from Tunbridge Wells. We talk about the notion of ‘stranger danger’ involving children and how we negotiate the past as well as ‘fitting in’ at school, detention, and issues around behaviour and the change in culture over the d

My guest this week is Carla Morris who is International Pathways Manager in the Centre for English & World Languages at the University of Kent where she has been for the last 10 years, and we begin by talking about an embarrassing meeting we once had as Senior Tutors for our respective Schools. Carla grew up in Dublin in the 1960s and went to a Methodist school which was her first multicultural experience and later went on to study History of art and Medieval History at Trinity College Dublin. She ended up bookselling for the next few years, and we find out about the ‘curious journey’ she then went on, which included working for an American independent financier and wanting to travel the world, which is how she met her husband, and later teaching refugees and asylum seekers and Business English. We learn why travelling back in time has always been Carla’s passion and we find out that as a child Carla played imaginative games in her garden. Carla has always wanted to help make a difference to people’

My guest this week is Patty Baker, Senior Lecturer in Classical & Archaeological Studies at the University of Kent. Patty, who is originally from Pennsylvania, has been at Kent for 18 years, and she talks about how it feels to go back and we discuss the concept of ‘home’ and the notion of moving on. We discuss what happens when you run into people from your past and the lessons that can be learned. Patty talks about the different places where her family members have ended up and we move on to talk about the different dreams that we chase. She talks about her early memories and the calling she had to visit exotic places from childhood. We find out what initiated her love of archaeology, why she ‘had’ to go to Italy and how at the age of 15 she knew she was going to specialise in Graeco-Roman history. Patty reveals that she had a passion for the sea from childhood, which takes her into a different world, and she talks about why she feels so healthy there. She also tells us about how she came across a

My guest this week is Jacqui Double who works in Student Support in the School of Arts at the University of Kent. Originally from North Wales, Jacqui grew up in the Potteries. Her father was a fireman, we learn that she was an inquisitive child, and her parents were Mormons. She especially remembers buildings from her childhood as well as walking to school from the age of about 5. We learn about Jacqui’s religious sensibilities as a child and our experiences of growing up in faith environments and the limitations thereby, and move on to speak about different friendship communities that have been built up, and growing up with children who have challenging medical circumstances. Jacqui was the first of her generation in her family to go to university and she reflects on how she had to make choices to enable her to live independently. She worked as a teacher and then for a theatre company and we discover that Jacqui is quite a practical person and isn’t someone who looks back and regrets things. Jacqui

My guest this week is Andy Crome, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Manchester Metropolitan University. We learn that Andy grew up in St. Andrews and studied Theology and Ancient History at Lampeter. We talk about dialects, accents and early memories, including about the history of Lampeter and the people who embodied the place and gave it a sense of continuity. We find out about Andy’s work in early modern history and fandom and how it relates to ‘Dr. Who’, and the cross overs between these areas, as when Andy talks about 'Dr. Who' episodes set in early modern history. I ask Andy whether he would fancy being a consultant for 'Dr. Who', and whether there should be a 'Dr. Who' musical, and we talk about the mystique of the lost episodes. Andy mentions the Starbucks appearance in ‘Game of Thrones’, and the potential for something to go wrong during live theatre performances. Andy recalls his musical passions, including going to see Bon Jovi in concert. He talks about Manchester being a great c

My guest this week is Martin Bloomfield (aka ‘Dodgy Shoes’) who is studying towards a PhD in Philosophy at the University of York and who, like me, studied at Lampeter during the 1990s. Martin explains why Lampeter was a ‘collection of caricatures’, and we also find out about the range of schools he attended when he was young. Martin remembers the birth of his younger brother, and Martin reflects on how York (and himself) have changed over the years. We learn about Martin’s current employment, and Martin reveals what the most valuable lesson was that he learned in Lampeter and how it informed the rest of his life. We learn that as a student he would see gigs at Gassy Jacks in Cardiff, including Bad Manners, and we reflect on the more ‘C’ list musicians who would tend to come to Lampeter. We also learn about the different branches of the karate club as well as the fencing society that Martin used to be involved with, and why he thinks of Lampeter as a person. We hear about the infamous ‘foot joke’, and h

My guest this week is Dawn Llewellyn, Senior Lecturer in Christian Studies at the University of Chester, who I first met nearly a decade ago when Dawn had just completed her PhD. We learn that Dawn’s father is a professional golfer and her mother is a retired nurse, and we discuss the vocational dimension to our respective jobs in academia. Dawn talks about the importance in her life of Open Water Swimming which has led her to swimming the English Channel. We talk about the importance of having a counterpoint to our ‘day jobs’, and the different forms that they can take, and the importance of community. For example, Dawn talks about how her PhD studied the way women use literature to reinforce their sense of self and of forming communities and how a book can be a friend. We learn that golf dominated Dawn’s childhood and that the first gig she went to see was New Kids on the Block and that her first album was by the Beautiful South. We also find out about Dawn’s Bucks Fizz confession, why she used to thi

My guest this week is Victoria Mullen, a University of Kent alumnus, who works as a school lay chaplain in Nottingham and whom I taught a decade ago. In this really insightful interview Victoria talks about how she went from managing a restaurant in Canterbury to studying Religious Studies and tells us how she ended up at Kent and what it was like to be interviewed by Robin Gill. Victoria was born in Galway and moved to Kent in the late 1980s. We talk about accents, Victoria’s earliest memories, which pertain to her grandparents’ farm which she often returns to, perceptions of ageing and sexism, whether social media keeps us younger, and whether students are more grown up today than in previous generations. Victoria also recounts her memories of going swimming in Canterbury and being obsessed with Robson & Jerome, and having a penchant for ‘geeky’ music. We talk about the influence of the charts and Victoria reveals the first song she bought, and we find out what happened when she saw Bucks Fizz per

My guest this week is Sarah Blackman, a University of Kent alumnus, whom I taught a few years ago on the BA Religious Studies programme. Sarah told her mother at the age of five that she wanted to be a primary school teacher, and three decades later she has fulfilled her ambition. She tells us what initially stopped her along the way from realizing her dreams. Sarah is from Ashford and she shares her childhood memories of sitting on a balloon and it popping as well as not wanting to go to a boy’s party and the power games that children play around invitations, and we discuss the differences between children’s behaviour at school and at home. Sarah recalls doing her homework to the sound of Mark Goodier counting down the charts on Radio 1 and the skills of categorising and classifying information. We also find out what her reaction was when she learned that S Club 7 had beaten Madonna to reach number 1 in the singles charts. We talk about her experiences of school and Sarah tells us why her RE supply

It was a privilege this week to interview Jeremy Carrette, Dean for Europe and Professor of Philosophy, Religion and Culture at the University of Kent. We learn how Jeremy came to Canterbury because of love and why he had to demote himself in order to work here, as well as about his links to the Huguenots and the improvement in rail services over the years, and we find out what happened when Jeremy met Jarvis Cocker on the Eurostar. Jeremy talks about how we created a new era for Religious Studies at Kent and broke up some of the former habits among the ‘old guard’ and the process involving renewing the Michael Ramsey Chair. We also discuss the difference between teaching 18-21 year olds and teaching trainee priests, and the different challenges now affecting us with respect to Europe. Jeremy talks about the importance of seizing opportunities when they arise, and about the importance of relationship building. Great advances in knowledge have been through partnerships and Jeremy discusses how these are

It was a huge pleasure this week to interview Janet Neilson, former school teacher in Swansea, who talks about her educational background and the differences in career advice given in those days compared to today as well as about her parents’ military experiences during the Second World War and about the days when married women were not allowed to teach. Janet was a junior school teacher who specialized in music and she tells us how she made sure her pupils were good readers. We learn why Janet went into teaching and worked as a piano teacher and we learn why she thinks the National Curriculum is one of the worst things that could have happened. We find out about Janet’s earliest memories, including her time in the Girl Guides, and learn that she didn’t have a TV before 1962 but listened to Children’s Hour on the radio, but was mainly into classical music. She also sang in the Swansea Philharmonic Choir. Janet talks about the teachers who inspired her, the change in pastoral care in education over th

It was an immense privilege this week to interview Judith Francis. Judith was born in Radnorshire in 1935 and we talk about various Church or Sunday School trips she remembers making as a child and about the different modes of communication that existed compared to today. Judith has snapshots of the past and relays some of her childhood memories, including her time as an evacuee during the Second World War. Judith talks about her experience of air raid shelters and how she was petrified when she had to put on a gas mask. We talk about phobias and what it was like to be an evacuee from Newport to Pembrokeshire and how happy she was living by the seaside where she made friends with other evacuees. Judith discusses how as a child she would make her own entertainment, using her imagination and playing war games. We learn about her experience of growing up during the Second World War and about the horrendous experience of witnessing two RAF men being washed up on the beach. There was no electricity where

My guest this week is Dani Shalet, one of my former PhD students at the University of Kent. Dani is originally from Pennsylvania and we find out why she doesn’t consider herself to be culturally American any more. She once wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer and we find out why her father advised her not to follow that path. We also learn about Dani’s background in martial arts and how she would spend her childhood walking through creeks and lakes to catch snakes, including the time she accidentally killed her father’s snakes, and how she no longer has a fear of animals. We learn why Indiana Jones was once Dani’s hero, and musically we learn about her passions and how she became interested in alternative rock, e.g. the work of Tori Amos. We find out about the circumstances which led Dani to leave home for Canterbury, and why she chose to stay, and how she found Kent to be a more advantageous environment, where she was accepted for who she was. Dani talks about her inspirati