A collection of diary entries from the dean of the fictional St. Andrew's College, Edinburgh. Longsuffering and cantankerous, he documents the comings and goings of eccentric professors, academic triumphs and failures and the disastrous outcome of a physics department's experiment resulting in the magnetisation of the number 42 bus.
David Purdie is arguably our best after-dinner speaker of the moment. - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
David Purdie was born privately and educated publicly. Having spent most of his early years as a child, he went on to Ayr Academy and then Glasgow University where he read Medicine. He concluded his medical academic life in 2007 and is now an Hon. Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. While devoting his time to writing, broadcasting and public speaking, he has served as chairman of the Sir Walter Scott Club and the Edinburgh Burns Club, as a patron of the JP Morgan Library, New York and of the National Galleries and Na-tional Library of Scotland. A freelance journalist, he contributes to the broadsheet press and to BBC radio on medical and scientific matters. He is a parliamentary speechwriter and editor for certain members of the House of Commons and is speech adviser to a number of major figures in the sports and entertainment fields.
Contents
Foreword 7
Introduction 9
College Animals 13
The 15 Tesla Problem 18
The Guest in the Laundry Chute 22
High Table Dining 28
Misprisions 34
The Decalogue 40
Richard Porson ma 46
The Dean at Oxford 53
New College 57
Scott and the Aussies 63
Saints & Sinners 68
Public Transport 73
The Big Bang - and Chimps 80
Armistice day 84
The Lord's Taverners Lunch 89
Student Japes 94
A Summer Roundup 99
The AGM 104
Gravity 109
Founder's Day Lecture 115
Appraisals 120
Trains 125
The Dean from Krakow 131
Machrihanish 138
The Dean on the Phone 144
The Dean in America 150
The Dean in DC 155
Golf in America 160
College Burns Nicht 165
The Dean's Ivanhoe 171
The Lady Mondegreen 176
The Dean in Musselburgh 181
The Dean's Correspondence 185