Who Do You Think You Are? It’s a great programme, and makes for compelling TV. We’re all interested in the stories people have to tell, and every family history turns out to have complicated, often mysterious twists. As I walk around the University meeting new colleagues, I try to ask people to tell me something…

There’s no script for being a new Vice-Chancellor. In fact, what is clear is that you enter midway through someone else’s script – and a script with many authors. If you’re lucky they hand you a copy as they leave the stage.  Given that I have taken the stage in January this means that I arrive…

Something over thirty years ago, in my first job, I remember asking a colleague how some particular process or other should work. “Oh, don’t worry,” she said, “it’s just the same as last year”. It was no doubt well-meant, but it’s obviously not a very helpful thing to say to someone who is new. In…