‘It was a great day indeed, he did really great days, didn’t he?’ said Jim, maybe wondering if he might get the story telling roll back. No chance. ‘It was a magnificent day indeed Jim,’ continued Barry and the Duke summoned over one of his lackies: ‘Who’s that over there, old boy?’ he asked, ‘with the denim clobber on? With all the greasy hair, bit scruffy?’’ The reply came that it was Mark Knopfler. Pause. ‘Right, tell me more, I don’t know him’, the Duke had then asked. ‘Well, he’s in Dire Straits your lordship.’ ‘Oh, is he indeed?’ replied the now intrigued Duke, ‘Good lord’. As you can all now anticipate, the Duke soon made his way over to the legend Mark Knopfler and engaged him in a quite unusual conversation which went something like: ‘Hello Mark, I’m the Duke of whatsit, pleased to meet you old chap. I’ve just been chatting to my pal over there. Look, old boy, cut to the chase, I am very sorry to hear that you are in dire straits and if there is anything I can do to help please let me know. Job leads and so on, you know the script, just say the word.’ The present room erupted in laughter. I made a mental note that despite never remembering funny stories until years later I really, really must try and remember this particular one. As it happens, I didn’t really remember it but heard it told again a few weeks later but this time with completely different names, locations and so on. But it really doesn’t matter as all the narrative is probably completely made up anyway. Nevertheless, on the grounds that I have been in the company of all the people in this book on many occasions since that shoot at Brigands and I have heard myriad different versions of the tale, I am leaving it as it is. If you wanted accuracy in this book hard luck and no, you can’t have your money back.
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