WHERE WAS I?
My friend wants to spend the day in a business district three miles south-southwest of here. But I’ve done some research — and detoured to this borough instead. “I’m stoked! Knowing tons of new details about this place has upended my view of it,” I tell him. “It’s full of stories.”
“Convenience stores and traffic lights, more like,” Friend grumbles.
To prove him wrong I show him where a king (father: Henry) was reconciled with a future queen (father: Henry) in a moment that was, ultimately, of considerable dynastic consequence.
“In this sixth-form campus, by a roundabout?” he scoffs.
Of course not — it was in a mansion that once stood here. “How dull,” Friend says. “If you were a professional guide I’d fire you on the spot.”
All right, what about the football club whose ground once stood half a mile eastsoutheast of here, before it settled across a river and — 79 years ago — changed its name? Maybe that will reorient his perceptions.
It doesn’t. So I take him to a primary school 700 yards northwest of the campus. “Amazing!” he sarcastically gasps. “What’s this? The alma mater of an extraordinary 20th-century boy?”
“Two of them, actually,” I tell him.
One served a musical apprenticeship in a band that included an equally extraordinary girl at the same school. Separately they went on to top the pop charts.
The other boy became an entrepreneur and TV host.
Friend’s jaw drops. “So if I were a professional guide, would you rehire me?” I ask.
“Woopah oh yeah,” he says.
Sean Newsom
THE QUESTIONS
1 What was the first name of the king?
2 What is name of the primary school?
LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS (QUIZ 02)
The answers are Lawrence and Elvaston Castle.