Winter 2013 Issue 33
ON WINNING GOLD
DF
Sophie Hosking THE MAN WHO SOLD GOLDMAN SACHS A profile of Lucas van Praag
A WITNESS TO THE RISE OF AL-QAEDA Book extract: Storm Warning
Durham First – the magazine for alumni and friends of Durham University
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Vice-Chancellor’s Questions Q:The University has recently opened a fabulous new purpose-designed facility – the Palatine Centre – to bring all student services together and has vacated Old Shire Hall after over 50 years. How is this going to change the University? A: Student-facing support services, such as careers, financial support, IT help-desks, counselling and disability and student planning and assessment were, as most alumni will know, scattered around the City. We have now brought all these services together into the Palatine Centre. Located next to the newly expanded library, it is a truly exciting and innovative building, which reflects our status as one of the world’s top-100 universities. The Centre also houses the University Executive and café facilities, which are proving a hit with
From the Director It is my great privilege and pleasure to be given space in Durham First to say a few words of personal introduction. I am thoroughly pleased to announce that I have been appointed Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Durham University. I consider this position extremely important for the establishment and maintenance of good and friendly relations with our many alumni all over the world.
staff and students alike. Thus, we now have a buzzing hub mid-way between the Bailey and Hill Colleges forming a studentfocused heart to the University, providing all the support that students need outside their Colleges and Departments. The life and energy the Palatine Centre has generated through helping staff and students mix at the heart of the University is palpable. Q:How is Durham coping with the new fees regime? A: Very positively: we are well prepared. The new fees regime replaces block funding from the Government with funding from students through loans. While this does not mean more funding for us, it does focus student choice and expectations. Although applications to UK universities
That Durham University is a special place is unmistakable and that our alumni have tremendous affection and affinity to their alma mater is universally palpable. It is my intention to enable the circa 140,000 alumni of this wonderful place to be connected to Durham through various publications (like Durham First), the Internet, social media, events and colloquia. In this way, I would hope to let graduates know about the important developments at Durham and to encourage them to be involved in the life of Durham now and into the future. It bears mentioning that as graduates, you are both distinctive and distinguished and moreover very special to us here at Durham. In addition, your connection to the University, through your respective Colleges, creates an affinity that is the envy of universities all across the country.
have decreased by around 10%, Durham has seen an increase in applicants of the highest standard, presumably reflecting a ‘flight to quality’. We are also well prepared to meet expectations, for example with the Palatine Centre, a significant bursary scheme to help attract the most able students to Durham irrespective of background, and the major modern expansion of the main University library – now renamed the Bill Bryson Library after our much-loved former Chancellor.
Professor Chris Higgins Vice-Chancellor and Warden
I see it as my role to encourage and nurture that relationship for generations to come. With your interest and support, Durham can continue to be shaped by the past whilst creating the future. Durham is a superb University within an enchanting City and I welcome all alumni to make contact with either me or any of my colleagues at your leisure. Please visit your website if you have not already done so at www.durham.ac.uk/alumni. It will indeed be gratifying to meet many of you during the course of my tenure at Durham and to increase your involvement in and commitment to our many activities.
Bruno van Dyk, Director of Development and Alumni Relations durham.editor@durham.ac.uk
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FEATURES
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14
25
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REGULARS
04 The Man Who Sold Goldman Sachs
14 DUCK & RAG
02 VCQs
A profile of Lucas van Praag
A photo montage
Questions to the Vice-Chancellor
08 On Winning Gold
18 A Witness to the Rise of al-Qaeda
02 From the Director
Sophie Hosking
Book extract: Storm Warning
Bruno van Dyk
10 The First BA in Africa?
25 Young Alum
22 Experience Durham
NS Davis speaks
Author Peter Moore
Student achievement in sport, music, the arts and volunteering
12 Revolutionary Brew
26 News in Brief
‘Tea as bad as whiskey’
Alumni and University news
Back Cover – Alumni Events Calendar Dates for your diary EDITOR David Williams Development Communications Manager
IMAGES Getty (Front cover image and page 4)
MANAGING EDITOR Josephine Francis
North News and Pictures (Sophie Hosking, page 9)
DEPUTY EDITOR Tim Guinan Alumni Relations Officer CONTRIBUTOR Nic Mitchell
Intersport Images/GB Rowing (Sophie Hosking & Kat Copeland with gold medals, page 8; Lily van den Broecke with team, page 22) DUCK and RAG photos (pages 14-16) were kindly provided by: Mike Hall (BSc Chemistry, Grey College, 1963-66) and Mark Crowne (BEng Engineering, Grey College, 1983-86) Karim Merie (National Fundraising Awards photo, page 15)
DESIGN Crombie www.crombiecreative.com PRINT Elanders www.elanders.com CONTACT US Alumni enquiries/Letters to the Editor Development and Alumni Relations Durham University, The Palatine Centre, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LE T: +44 (0) 191 334 6305 F: +44 (0) 191 334 6073 E: alumni.office@durham.ac.uk durham.editor@durham.ac.uk W: www.dunelm.org.uk © Durham University 2013
Andrew Bennison (Experience Durham photos, pages 22-23) CBP00016540711120458
Opinions expressed are those of individual writers. Requests for reproducing material should be made to the Alumni Relations Office, where permission will usually be given.
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The Man Who Sold Goldman Sachs From merchant seaman to merchant banker, Lucas van Praag (Economics and Economic History, Cuthbert’s, 1971-74) was the chief spin-doctor at Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis and had his hand on the tiller through Wall Street’s greatest storm. David Williams reports. Lucas van Praag (left) advises Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein during a Senate hearing in 2010.
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Lucas van Praag is famous for his put-downs. Through the financial crisis, as allegation after smear after criticism were flung at Goldman Sachs, Van Praag was ready with a series of flamboyant and apparently off-the-cuff rebuttals that earned him the sobriquet ‘Goldman’s rococo PR prince’. These are his greatest hits:
After a famous Rolling Stone article which called Goldman Sachs ‘a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money’, Van Praag hit back, calling the article ‘an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories. Notable ones missing are Goldman Sachs as the third shooter [in the JFK assassination] and faking the first lunar landing.’
His greatest hits make him read like a stateside version of Alastair Campbell – Tony Blair’s controversial spin-doctor – and indeed Van Praag now runs his own PR consultancy. And when you learn that Van Praag left school at sixteen to become a merchant seaman, he begins to sound like a pugnacious lieutenant throwing out comms-chaff in order to distract the world from the predicament of his commander-in-chief. But Van Praag is much more than this. Even the UK’s left-leaning Guardian newspaper admits he is ‘respected by many financial journalists for his willingness to engage in substantive discussion on issues avoided by other Wall Street banks.’ The fact is he knows his stuff.
To an editor in the US who wanted to follow up a story in the UK’s Independent on Sunday: ‘I, too, read yesterday’s story in The Independent about us supposedly moving people to Spain. As an insider, I was almost certainly more surprised than you. I accept that Sunday journalism is difficult, particularly in the UK where many titles compete for a share of a pretty small market, but there was a time when fact-based reporting wasn’t thought of as an oxymoron. Oh well.’
Lucas van Praag was born in London and educated at Frensham Heights in Surrey. A liberal co-ed boarding school, it is the sort of place that doesn’t have a school uniform and where teachers are known by their first names. Without discipline, Van Praag flunked. And while not quite running away to sea at sixteen, he left without his father’s blessing and with his mother insisting that he could only avoid a life of paternal I-told-you-so if he made sure he completed the full four years he had signed up to.
On a rumour that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was about to resign: ‘It is preposterous that the Wall Street Journal would even consider publishing such effluent.’
‘Every night I was away, she would listen to the shipping forecast for UK waters,’ he says, ‘regardless of where I happened to be in the world.’ But it was the merchant navy, its structure and the training in navigation that made him realise he could cope with both responsibility and complex calculations. He worked his four years and did his A-levels by correspondence course on the high seas, picking up a packet of assignments as he passed through the Panama Canal, posting it back when he reached New Zealand. It got him into Durham to study Economics and Economic History, and he is forever grateful to the University (and the Seafarers’ Education Service) for giving him a second chance. Like many Durham graduates, he remembers two things: the unbidden generosity of a professor and the bone-eating cold. In his case, it was Professor Walter Elkan, a fellow Frensham old-boy, who taught him the economics of development and the role of globalization in alleviating poverty, while the terrifying northern cold is relived in the memory of coming home one day to find his flatmate breaking up a wardrobe to put on the fire. Durham changed his life, but not immediately. After graduating, the only job he could find was as second-mate on a coastal collier, officially ‘the worst job I have ever had’. But eventually he found his way onto the graduate programme at Bankers Trust Company, a US commercial bank which is now part of Deutsche Bank. He did their year-long, New-York-based, MBA-like training programme, and
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ironically, in terms of what was to happen, he joined just at the point when Bankers Trust and other commercial banks in the US were beginning to find ways around the confines of the Depression-era GlassSteagall Act, the legislation which had ring-fenced commercial and investment
he says. ‘Back then, a lot of innovative techniques were used to pursue underwriting activities without actually underwriting, without doing things that were specifically precluded by the Act. An example would be that if a company wanted to issue commercial paper [ie its own debt that was tradable in the market], they would go to an investment bank and ask them to underwrite it. What commercial banks started to do was compete for this profitable business by providing stand-by letters of credit, so in the event that the institution issuing the paper couldn’t meet its obligations, the stand-by letter of credit, which was a perfectly legitimate commercial banking instrument, came into play. It was quasi-underwriting that didn’t breach the law.’ (The Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999.)
‘More broadly, you could say of Merrill Lynch, for example, that it failed to hedge its mortgage risk effectively. The banks who were imprudent in the way they managed risk put the whole system in jeopardy.’
banking, a practice known today as ‘tunnelling’. ‘It is very topical now because post the financial crisis a number of people think Glass-Steagall should be reintroduced,’
He has one investment tip he is prepared to share from his early, creditanalyst days. ‘When you read the company accounts, have a look at the Chairman’s letter,’ he says, tongue-in-cheek. ‘If there are any nautical references, for example “weathered the storm”, “charted the course”, “avoided the rocks”, you can assume they are a very bad credit risk and likely to go bust within 12 months.’
Doubly ironically, given what was to happen in the subprime mortgage market, Van Praag was also there during the pioneering days of derivatives: the creation of the interestrate and currency swaps that allowed institutions to speculate and hedge on what might happen to the cash flows from loans.
After nine years, he left New York banking because he wanted to do something different and had a bruising five years back in the UK running a textile manufacturing company. Spells in consultancy and publishing followed, and then, in 1991, he was approached by a head-hunter to join the fledgling corporate-communications firm Brunswick, set up by the now legendary PR guru Alan Parker. ‘I wasn’t keen on the idea until I met Alan,’ Van Praag says. ‘His vision of strategic communications was fascinating. At the time, there were lots of companies going public in London, and Alan’s view was that PR advisors had as much right to have a seat at the table as the bankers, the accountants and the lawyers, and, if their advice added significant value, to be paid as well as them.’ Eight years later, Goldman Sachs came calling, and within 18 months he was back with the bankers in New York, this time as Global Head of Corporate Communications. But even though he had reached the top of both the banking and PR worlds, it did not feel like that. ‘Goldman Sachs is an extraordinary company, one that I have huge admiration for,’ he says. ‘It is viewed externally as being the pre-eminent, all-powerful, alpha-male institution, but inside the organisation it doesn’t feel like that. It is full of type-A individuals who all are focussed on not screwing up. For example, it is an organisation that doesn’t celebrate success. If you execute a transaction for a client and they want to celebrate, then of course you get involved, but you don’t run around slapping your colleagues on the back. You are much more worried about doing an excellent job for the next client. In some quarters, the view is it is a behemoth that operates effortlessly and does so because it has some divine right to greatness, but internally it does not feel like that at all. ‘The fact is that if you are the CEO of, say, an industrial organisation, you might make two or three transformational deals during your tenure. If you are running an investment bank, you are probably responsible for people working on dozens of transformational transactions every day and the chance of making a mistake,
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of hiring someone who turns out to be a bad apple, of some unforeseen event occurring that affects one of the transactions is very real, so my job was never predictable and never boring.’ He is speaking about the period prior to the financial crisis. But of course Van Praag was also there for the greatest unforeseen event since the Great Depression, one that affected all transactions everywhere: the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. The crisis destroyed Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, while also damaging other investment banks. But, in what became known as the ‘big short’, Goldman Sachs had hedged itself against the possibility of a subprime collapse and emerged relatively unscathed, but with its reputation under attack. There was one charge that really stung: that by hedging against the possibility of a subprime collapse, Goldman Sachs was in effect ‘betting against its own clients’ because the bank was continuing to sell mortgage-backed securities at the same time. It was this charge that was most prominently prosecuted by Senator Carl Levin at the US Senate hearings of April 2010 [pictured on page 4].
what it is they want to do; it is not there to tell clients whether what they want is a smart idea. ‘More broadly, you could say of Merrill Lynch, for example, that it failed to hedge its mortgage risk effectively. The banks who were imprudent in the way they managed risk put the whole system in jeopardy.’ So why then didn’t Goldman Sachs crow more? Why didn’t it tell the world that it was proud it hedged, that this was the
‘The biggest criticism I have of what we did is that we were probably too aggressive for too long, and that we should have reined it in a bit sooner. The reality was that it wasn’t clear to us that it was over. The decision I made was to keep rowing until we hit the beach.’
‘When things got very difficult, we conducted an analysis. Obviously it would have been great if there had been a better understanding of the role of investment banks among the population at large but we didn’t have the luxury of time to get that message out. We determined that, in the immediate short-term, there were just four groups that really mattered to us and that if we lost them then we could end up with a huge problem. Those groups were our employees, our clients, our shareholders and our 330-plus regulators around the world. ‘The decision we made was that we would refute, rebut or correct anything that we saw that was wrong, and do it in a way that was going to get noticed. We understood that Main Street would be reconfirmed in its view that we were an arrogant organisation, but this was not critical to the firm’s survival. We also recognized that the person who did it would become a story for a minute-and-a-half.’ And so the rococo prince was born. For Van Praag, the strategy worked. Morale remained high, recruitment went up, market share increased, the key group of shareholders stayed with the firm, and, although there were some regulatory issues in the US and the UK, the catastrophe of having the business shut down in another country because of adverse publicity was avoided.
reason it was still standing and that it ‘Senator Levin’s claims that Goldman didn’t actually need the bail-out money Sachs bet against its clients highlights a problem that many companies have,’ Van that the US government obliged it to take? ‘The biggest criticism I have of what Praag points out. ‘It is very easy to make ‘Over the years, the firm saw little need we did is that we were probably too an accusation that resonates. Rebutting aggressive for too long, and that we the charge is not so easy if the explanation to communicate with Main Street,’ Van Praag says, giving the context. ‘It is not should have reined it in a bit sooner. is relatively complex. In the court of The reality was that it wasn’t clear to public opinion, complicated explanations a retail bank; it’s a wholesale business. It didn’t have a reputation on Main Street us that it was over. The decision I made just don’t resonate. The fact is that that it needed to protect nor indeed any was to keep rowing until we hit the Goldman Sachs has three businesses: ways of communicating with the public beach’, he says. an investment management division that except by advertising, which was thought manages assets for pension funds and to be of limited value, and through the private clients; an investment banking financial media. That media interest was division that gives advice to companies for a very long time limited to what I on how to raise money and structure call sports reporting – ranking banks on mergers, acquisitions and other various activities – and personality-led transactions; and a securities division stuff. And that kind of grandstanding is which is fixed income and equities not part of Goldman’s DNA. The firm trading. The first two divisions have doesn’t approve of individual selffiduciary responsibilities to their clients, promotion. But, in the middle of the which means they have a legal obligation financial crisis, we couldn’t do everything to act in their clients’ best interests; the from a standing start and it was the securities division doesn’t. As a market allegation of betting against our clients maker, the firm has an obligation to give that stuck. clients the best possible execution of
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Sophie Hosking Durham’s gold medallist Sophie Hosking (BSc Natural Sciences, Trevelyan, 2004-07) talks to Nic Mitchell about her hopes that Britain’s medal triumphs in London 2012 will inspire a generation of new female talent to take up sports like rowing.
It was one of the iconic moments of London 2012. Durham graduate Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland from Yarm crossed the finishing line to clinch gold for Great Britain in the lightweight women’s double scull. In front of a raucous crowd at Eton Dorney, the unforgettable duo beat off tough challenges from Greek and Chinese rivals to produce an outstanding finish and boost hopes of a recordbreaking haul of medals for British female athletes in the Games. Their win was all the more stunning as they had only been rowing together for three months, boasting a single World Cup silver medal from their partnership prior to Britain’s most successful regatta in Olympic history.
So, unsurprisingly, emotions spilled over at the end of the race – much to the delight of the patriotic watching media and adoring home supporters. ‘It was a real mix of emotions for both Kat and me. Elation as well as a sense of real pride that we had won in front of a home crowd – coupled with an element of relief,’ said 26-year-old Sophie. There to join the celebrations at Eton Dorney were her proud parents, both Durham graduates themselves. David Hosking (Geography, Grey, 1975-78) and Louise Hosking (Arabic, St Cuthbert’s, 1975-78) were there as Olympic Games volunteers, as well as being Sophie’s keenest supporters.
IN THE BLOOD Rowing is in Sophie’s blood. She started rowing competitively at the age of 14 while at Kingston Grammar School and found
herself following something of a family tradition. Her father won a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships in 1980 with the British lightweight eight and has rowed the Atlantic twice. But the sport has sometimes been forced to play second fiddle to Sophie’s first love – football. She is an avid AFC Wimbledon fan and nearly gave up rowing when she came to Durham. ‘I chose Durham because it is a very good university for the natural sciences, and I think my parents influenced my choice subconsciously. They met there of course, and they enjoyed their time there and always said it was a beautiful place. ‘As a Londoner, I thought it was important to experience another part of the country while at university, but it was the physics
and chemistry rather than the rowing that attracted me here,’ said Sophie. Luckily for the nation, the call to get back on the water was too strong, and, after a term playing university football, she was back rowing again with the University, which runs the most successful undergraduate rowing programme in the country.
ROWING TRADITION ‘Durham is one place where you can’t really get away from the water. It is all around you and the rowing tradition is so strong. ‘I made the first eight in my first year and went on to learn sculling in my second.’ By the age of 20, Sophie’s lightweight physique was seen as a major plus and she won a silver medal in the under-23 lightweight single World Championship.
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Other sporting triumphs followed after she teamed up with her friend and former rowing partner in the double, Hester Goodsell.
‘I don’t want to rush a decision and I don’t want Kat to be reliant on my decision or vice versa.’
‘That is something that will be a real legacy of the Games and it is something that is really important to me.
So, the chance to put her feet up and enjoy some winter sunshine down under is something she was really looking forward to.
But it was Katherine Copeland who proved the faster in the time trials; and so just three months before the opening of the London Olympic Games, Sophie found herself with a new rowing partner.
Talking to the London Evening Standard after their victory, Sophie told of her determination to inspire children to get into sport after the triumphant Games for Great Britain.
‘Going and talking to girls, any schoolchildren, to show that they can – if they put in the hard work – achieve whatever they want is a really important thing.’
But somehow, I do not think it will be long before this champion female athlete is back rowing again and helping to encourage more young women to take up this, and other sports, at a competitive level.
‘It was a good thing we gelled so quickly, but I think we both knew we had a huge amount of potential. It was just a question of getting it right in time for the Olympics,’ said Sophie. Like Kat, she has enjoyed being in the spotlight since her golden moment and met up with Kat when Team GB won Team of the Year at the GQ Awards. But speculation about the pair rowing again at the next Olympics in Rio needs to be put on hold, at least until Sophie has enjoyed a winter holiday in Australia.
INSPIRE A GENERATION She recalled all the hoardings during the Games with the slogan, Inspire A Generation. ‘I didn’t really see how that would be applicable to me. But since finishing I’ve had people come up to me and say, “My daughters want to find the local rowing club”. ‘They want to start rowing, not necessarily off the back of just what we did, but the fact that six women won golds in the sport.
Sophie returned to Durham to take part in a celebration of the University’s Olympian champions at the beginning of November and said: ‘I can honestly say that, if I hadn’t gone to Durham, I wouldn’t now be competing internationally in rowing. Durham as a collegiate university in a small city lends itself to let students study and pursue sporting careers simultaneously.’ After graduating, Sophie worked part-time as an environmental scientist helping to clean up contaminated land sites while also training for at least four hours a day.
‘if I hadn’t gone to Durham, I wouldn’t now be competing internationally in rowing’ To find out more about rowing at Durham, visit www.durham.ac.uk/experiencedurham
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THE FIRST BA IN AFRICA? NS DAVIS SPEAKS David Williams, Durham First editor, reports on the latest instalment in our investigation into whether Durham created the ‘first BA in Africa’. Several issues ago, we asked you to help us find out if one of the University’s former affiliate colleges – Fourah Bay in Sierra Leone – had conferred the first degree to be awarded to an African in Africa.
The second entry is an account of a visit along the coast during his long vacation session of 1879-80. He visited Lagos and gave a talk to explain the work of the College.
Back in June 2011 (issue 30), we only knew that the alumnus was called NS Davis and that he had graduated from Fourah Bay in 1878. Our appeal for information had a huge response.
‘What was the object of the Church Missionary Society in building the College in Sierra Leone, and the Collegiate Institution here at Lagos?’ he asks. ‘Certainly, not for the keeping of turkey buzzards? Why take the trouble of affiliating Fourah Bay College to an English University? Why, but that they thought it time enough for higher educational advantages to be general?’
One of the respondents, Matthew Andrews (MA SeventeenthCentury Studies, St Chad’s, 1994-98) went on to write an article in the last issue telling us how he had found a picture of NS Davis in the archives at Palace Green Library and that the ‘N’ stood for Nathaniel. Now we have more to report. Another of our readers, Anne George (née Cooper) (BA Classics, St Aidan’s, 1973-76) wrote in to say that she had found references to a Nathaniel Davis in the archive material from the Church Missionary Society (CMS) where she works at the University of Birmingham.
Nathaniel then spent a week in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. ‘There was a time when degrees were conferred at Monrovia,’ he notes, ‘but as the College is not a component part of any university, and the questions were drawn on the spot, these degrees were not much thought of, and, as a consequence, are a thing of the past… Everything in the educational line is in a semi-defunct state: the buildings of the college are half-fallen; students attend at will, and professors lecture when it suits their convenience.’ Nathaniel had great hopes that the new, enhanced status of Fourah Bay would revolutionize attitudes to college education in West Africa.
Anne found two reports written by Nathaniel himself. The first is a journal describing his work at Anne found only a few other references Fourah Bay. For the week 7-12 to Nathaniel’s work in the CMS records. July 1879, he writes, ‘Took my college duties, and after lectures ‘He obviously suffered from ill health in the 1880s,’ she reports, ‘and he died in 1913.’ my examination papers for the Licence in Theology of the Durham University. This is indeed It is intriguing that Nathaniel writes so a great trial of strength – working, studying much about the status of education in and passing examination at the same time, Liberia. If Fourah Bay and Durham were to have a rival for conferring the ‘first BA but God in mercy took me through.’ in Africa’, it would be Liberia College.
If any Durham First readers can corroborate what Nathaniel wrote in 1880 about the status of degrees in Liberia, please get in touch with us at durham.editor@durham.ac.uk
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Would you consider including a gift to Durham, in your will? Remember your enthusiasm as a new student at Durham? Today, some of the brightest minds are attracted to Durham for postgraduate study. If they can just acquire the funding, they will be able to go on to great things. Scholarships can give excellent students an opportunity to turn their early promise into reality. By helping some of the world’s most gifted students to study here, you would be instrumental in enhancing Durham’s academic reputation as a top UK university of which we can all be proud. Patrick Duckney (pictured) has been awarded a grant from the Grevillea Trust, a fund established in the will of Dr Dorothy Catling. Thanks to Dr Catling’s forwardthinking provision, Patrick has been able to pursue his dream to study towards an MSc. “The MSc course provided by Durham’s Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences offers a chance to gain a unique and cutting-edge research skillset that
Patrick Duckney, recipient of an award from the Grevillea Trust.
could not be gained elsewhere. Funding from the Grevillea Trust has made it possible for me to study here.” You too could make a real difference. A gift can be of any size and all gifts are highly valued by the University and the students who benefit. Contact Louise McLaren, to discuss directing your gift to an area of your choice such as your College, academic department or other area of interest. Legacies Officer, Development and Alumni Relations, Durham University, The Palatine Centre, Stockton Road, Durham, DH1 3LE T: +44(0) 191 334 6313 E: louise.mclaren@durham.ac.uk
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Revolutionary Brew In early nineteenth-century Ireland, tea was still seen as a luxury that only the rich could afford, Durham’s Dr Helen O’Connell tells Nic Mitchell.
Tea time for disorder!
Why blame tea?
Tea was still seen as a luxury in early nineteenth-century Ireland that only the rich could afford. But that didn’t stop many of the rural poor, especially women, from devoting an increasing share of their meagre outgoings to the exotic brew.
Why tea-drinking should get so much blame for contributing to the breakdown of social order may seem baffling to us today, and it has certainly intrigued one scholar, who moved from Ireland to join Durham University in 2006.
So worried were liberal reformers at the dangers this might cause that some like Mary Leadbeater, a middle-class Quaker turned campaigner, produced their own ‘improvement’ pamphlets to persuade the poor to turn away from the addictive substance.
Dr Helen O’Connell, now a Lecturer in English Studies, hails from County Limerick. Her research focuses on the relationship between Irish literature and modernisation and she’s delving more deeply into ‘Tea in Ireland: Consumption and Sociability, from 1789-1845’ with the support of a grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
These were troubled times in Ireland – between the Rebellion of 1798 and before the Irish famines of 1845-52. And Leadbeater, like many in Ireland, was frightened by the growing polarisation and sectarian divide between mainly poor Irish Catholics and more wealthy Protestants. Reformers like her wanted the country to modernise and catch up with the striking improvements in agriculture, industry and culture occurring elsewhere in Britain and Europe. But they also feared the breakdown in traditional ways of life, which they saw as endangering the status quo and the Union with Great Britain. It was a tension that was never satisfactorily resolved, between concerns that Ireland was lagging behind and fears about the way it was absorbing new developments such as the spread of tea-drinking to all classes.
‘This is a largely untapped area of research’, says Dr O’Connell, whose paper, ‘A Raking Pot of Tea’: Consumption and Excess in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland’ has just been published in Literature and History, 21:2 (Autumn 2012). The paper looks in depth at the role of Mary Leadbeater and other liberal reformers who felt driven to produce their own ‘improvement’ pamphlets to help the poor struggle through difficult times. Dr O’Connell says that within their simple story-telling conversational style lay a political message: promoting traditional values of keeping ‘home and hearth’ together in the hope of turning the rural poor away from extremism, republicanism and revolution.
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‘Tea-drinking was clearly presented as reckless and uncontrollable.’
Without doubt, the most surprising feature of the ‘improvement’ pamphlets like Leadbeater’s Cottage Dialogues was their negative representation of tea-drinking among the peasant women, which was likened to being as irresponsible as whiskey drinking or tobacco smoking.
Revolutionary feminism To Leadbeater and her fellow reformers, it wasn’t just the prospect of the poor squandering their scarce resources on fashionable commodities, such as tea, that was such a worry but also the perceived expression of a form of revolutionary feminism. ‘Peasant women were condemned for putting their feet up with a cup of tea when they should be getting a hearty evening meal ready for their hard-working husbands,’ explains Dr O’Connell. ‘And if that wasn’t enough there were also supposedly drug-like qualities of tea, an exotic substance from far-away China, which was understood to become addictive over time. ‘How would the labourers be able to do a hard day’s work and what would become of the poor families and the children if the poor peasants wasted their money on something they couldn’t afford like tea, which had little nutritional value and was seen as a stimulant?
‘And to make matters worse for liberal reformers, like Mary Leadbeater, a cup of sweetened tea (it was taken with sugar at the time) had distasteful connotations with the slave trade and disgraceful conditions in the colonial plantations in the West Indies. ‘So, it is unsurprising that tea consumption – or even the possibility that tea might become a mainstay of a peasant’s diet – would generate considerable anxiety in Ireland in this period.’
Conversational prose What also fascinates Dr O’Connell is the conversational prose used in pamphlets, adopted in the hope of being more readily accessible even though literacy rates among the rural Irish poor at this time were fairly high.
to drink tea, and you would be hankering after it, when you got the way of it’. Later, Nancy’s ‘hankering after’ and evident pleasure in tea ultimately drives her husband Tim to seek pleasure in politics and secret society meetings – a clear warning of the dangers tea-drinking could lead to. ‘Tea-drinking was clearly presented as reckless and uncontrollable,’ says Dr O’Connell. So, what did Mary Leadbeater and her fellow reformers achieve? Not a great deal apart from having their pamphlets used as ‘safe’ reading material in some schools at the time, mainly the ones shunned by Catholics.
‘It was a failed project… people carried on drinking tea regardless of Leadbeater’s best literary efforts,’ says Dr O’Connell, ‘but her In Leadbeater’s fictional pamphlet of 1811, writings are still a fascinating part of Irish Cottage Dialogues, for instance, there is a literature to study and I use some of her discussion between two friends. Nancy pamphlets in my MA course.’ complains to Rose that ‘not a drop of tea’ will her mistress allow her ‘barring Sunday evenings and washing days and other servants in the town get it morning and evening, as duly as morning and evening To find out about other research come.’ at Durham, visit: http://breakthrough.durham.ac.uk To Nancy’s dismay, Rose replies that, ‘I think you are very much obliged to your mistress for not giving you such a bad fashion. What would you do in a house on your own? And you could not afford
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DUCK & RAG In the photo story for this edition, we celebrate the charity fundraising done by Durham University Charities Kommittee (DUCK) and, before it, by the organisers of RAG week (apparently so called because nineteenth-century students used to collect rags for the poor). All the images were kindly donated by alumni and include tricycle races on Palace Green and perhaps the most famous RAG moment of all – the car suspended from Kingsgate Bridge in 1964 (see page 16).
This page: Tricycle race on Palace Green – 1964 A sinking in the raft race – 1964 Opposite page: RAG ‘Bonny Baby’ competition – 1970 DUCK winners: Fundraising Team of the Year, 2012 National Fundraising Awards All because the mayoress loves Milk Tray… – 1983
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16 The car suspended from Kingsgate Bridge, RAG Week 1964
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Opening up Durham’s Research One of the most important things a modern university library does is to make research more widely available. Simon Speight, Head of Academic Support at the University Library, explains how Durham is leading the way. Open Access is a broad movement across academia to make publicly funded research freely available. Under the traditional academic publishing arrangements, only subscribers to journals are able to read the articles in each issue. Open Access seeks to make it easier for anyone – regardless of their qualification – to read the research, by offering it for free. At Durham, we have a long-standing commitment to open access. An important part of the University’s mission is not just to produce high-quality, wide-ranging research, but to make it available to as wide an audience as possible. This increased availability not only means that our research can potentially have a far greater impact upon wider society, leading to improvements in health, the economy and the local community, but it also benefits the author and the University by showcasing the range and quality of the University’s research, raising the profile of researchers and highlighting their achievements and expertise. Durham is responding to this challenge in a number of ways and has already established a number of initiatives to increase access to research.
Durham Research Online (DRO) Established in 2008, DRO is the University’s institutional repository. It provides free, full-text access to journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings and working papers written by Durham academics. Many publishers allow a specific version of an article or book chapter to be published in an institutional repository like DRO. This is usually the final published version but
lacks the publisher’s formatting. In other words, it is identical to the information in the full journal, but no subscription is required to read it. At the end of 2012, the full text of almost 3,000 items could be freely accessed via DRO across subjects in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities. DRO makes information available to an audience that would previously have had little or no access to such high-quality research. You can access DRO at http://dro.dur.ac.uk
E-Theses PhD and higher degree theses are another valuable source which is consistently overlooked. They contain a wealth of research information, yet the findings of most remain unpublished and rarely find a wider audience as they are often difficult to locate and even harder to get hold of. Durham University has been looking at ways to change this. Our PhD submission process has always required a print copy of the final thesis to be provided to the University Library to be made available for public consultation. However, from 1st October 2009 PhD students have been required to provide an electronic copy of their final thesis. Once added to the University’s e-Theses service it is publicly available online, mirroring the way the paper-based theses were available for consultation but increasing visibility and accessibility. Complementing this, the University is currently undertaking a project to digitise its entire collection of printed PhD theses (around 10,000 volumes), which will unlock another valuable source of research information. So far 2,670 PhD theses have
been digitised, consisting of 2,861 volumes, 123 music files, 15 movie files and 55 items of other supplementary material. In total, over 5,000 documents are now available from the e-Theses service – an impressive amount of research that would previously have been inaccessible. This project is due for completion in early 2013. Please go to http://etheses.dur.ac.uk for more information. Most authors are happy at the increased exposure and use of their research, but it is recognised that sometimes there are valid reasons why they might not want it available immediately. Authors may be seeking to publish their work or it may contain copyright-protected or commercially sensitive information. Under existing regulations, authors can request an embargo of up to five years when they submit their PhD – just as they could when theses were submitted in print format. A takedown policy [http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/policies/takedown policy.pdf] has also been developed so authors may apply retrospectively for an embargo of up to five years, even if one was not originally requested at the point of submission. In this way, wider access to research can be balanced against the needs of individual authors.
JSTOR JSTOR is one of the world’s most trusted sources of academic content and a new service now allows all Durham alumni and retired staff to access thousands of electronic journals for free. To access JSTOR, all you need to do is be registered with Dunelm – the Durham alumni network. Please visit www.dunelm.org.uk/jstor for more information.
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Book extract:
STORM – A witness to the rise of al-Qaeda Robin Brooke-Smith (History, Grey College, 1966-69) was Principal of Edwardes College in the University of Peshawar, Pakistan, during the 1990s. In this extract from his forthcoming book, he reveals how a shadowy alliance of various parties tried to destabilise the College and hijack its centenary celebrations in 2000. It was eventually foiled by the intervention of General Mahmood Ahmad, Head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s military intelligence service. I swung open the fly-netted door onto the veranda and we entered the main door into the living room. At the very moment we entered the room the phone began to ring. I went into the study and picked up the receiver. A cultivated voice introduced himself as General Mahmood Ahmad. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 10.45pm. The Director General of the ISI was ringing me late on a Saturday night…
‘He was touched by your kindness to him ‘I hope you are fine. Your stepfather, when he was here,’ I replied, trying to gather Mr Charlesworth, has called me and I my wits and wondering what I should say to understand that you have a problem at the this powerful man. college. He is such a wonderful man and we were so proud to host a dinner for ‘It was nothing. He was our great Principal him at Army GHQ in Rawalpindi last year. We hold him in great affection and respect.’ at Lawrence College, a great man,’ said the general. ‘Now can you tell me something about what has been going on at your college?
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WARNING What has been happening and give me some names if you can.’ I outlined the situation as best I could. He listened carefully. ‘It is clear that you have a conspiracy on your hands and they are trying to highjack your college centenary. This must be upsetting for you and your family. You have devoted five years of your life to the college and I want to assure you that the Edwardes College Centenary will be the event of the century in Peshawar. We will make sure of that. I am going to get my Head of Intelligence in Peshawar to contact you and we will take steps to deal with this unfortunate situation.’ We chatted politely a bit about Lawrence College days as though this was a normal routine conversation. ‘Please reassure your wife that all will be OK. We will look after everything.’ ‘Thank you so much,’ I said. ‘I really appreciate your help in this.’ ‘Well,’ said the suave rich voice. ‘We will take care of this business. I am upset by this whole episode and I will personally make sure it is sorted out. By the way, I’m sure I remember you at Ghora Gali back in the 1960s. Didn’t you used to visit Lawrence College? In fact I think I remember playing cricket in the nets with you. Now please relax. My Head of Intelligence in Peshawar will be in touch with you soon.’ When he rang off, I had time to take in what had just transpired. General Mahmood Ahmad was, on the surface at least, a bluff old style military man. I had seen photographs of him. He had
a bushy moustache and a refined officer class accent. He was part of the Lawrence College ‘Gallian’ old boy network. I learned later that shortly after our telephone conversation, Gen. Mahmood was in Washington DC for meetings with senior members of the CIA and the Clinton administration. This was a follow-up to the visit in January by Inderfurth. He now received a blunt warning from Under Secretary of State, Thomas Pickering, not to support America’s enemies in Afghanistan. ‘You are in bed with those who threaten us,’ Pickering said to him. I also later learned that Mahmood held meetings with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in the weeks following our phone call. Pakistan’s number one military ‘super-spy’ had called me to offer help. OK let’s run with this, I thought. I felt both scared and relieved at the same time. I knew that I was a very small fish swimming with big sharks in dangerous waters. I felt way out of my depth dealing with these big and powerful figures. I was trying to deal with an adversary out there that I hardly knew. There was a real danger threatening me that I could not counter myself. At least I seemed to have secured the support of a major power in the land, but at what cost, I wondered. Where would all this lead? Things were way beyond my control.
loan defaulters. One story spoke of Nawaz Sharif and other senior politicians going on trial for treason and hijacking – charges that carried the death penalty. There were also accounts of a meeting in Islamabad between the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Rick Inderfurth, and the Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, Jalil Akhund. The US warned the Taliban to stop backing the ‘Saudi Terrorist Osama bin Laden’. Even before I had finished reading the papers, the phone rang and the caller introduced himself as Brigadier Abdullah head of ISI operations in Peshawar. ‘My boss has told me that you have a problem at the college,’ he said. ‘Yes.’ ‘Well we are going to deal with it but first we have to meet. When will you be free?’ ‘Can you come to the College office tomorrow at ten?’ I replied. ‘We must meet now, today. Are you in your office?’ This was all so sudden. Why would I be in my office early on a Sunday morning? ‘No, I am at home,’ I said with surprise. Even in Peshawar Sunday is a holiday.
‘I will be at your home in one hour,’ he said. The following morning Diane and I had ‘Please have your man ready at the gate to breakfast in the dining room. It was early let me in.’ He rang off. This was moving in February 2000 and beams of sunlight faster than I expected. shafted obliquely down from the boxed skylights high above our heads onto the Five minutes before he arrived, the phone high walls. It was a hot morning and we rang again and the voice of the Brigadier’s had the day’s papers to read. There were ADC said, ‘the Director has just departed stories about Musharraf’s ‘Seven Point Plan’ from ISI headquarters. He will be with you to rebuild the nation, which involved in a few minutes. Please have the gate reviving the economy, restoring law and open for him.’ I told Yusuf, who was sitting on his bench outside the kitchen door order, and especially going after corrupt
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grooming his moustache, to tell Illyas to open the gate.
Then, out of the blue, he said, ‘Do you know our Urdu poet Iqbal?’
I was not expecting a poetry class. The Brigadier wore full khaki uniform with the red tabs of rank on his lapel. He had the obligatory moustache and when he took ‘Yes, I know of him,’ I replied. I remembered Changez reciting Iqbal’s poems to me when off his hat, he revealed slick black hair, cut we were teenagers playing cricket and short in the military style. Everything about chasing girlfriends together. him spoke of efficiency and urgency. His eyes were kind. I ushered him into the living ‘I have a piece of his poetry; it is especially room and he placed his officer’s cap on the for you.’ He looked hard at me and paused coffee table. Early on a Sunday morning as the parakeets outside screeched their was not the time I would have chosen for a morning rejoicings high in the peepul meeting to discuss a dangerous conspiracy tree. Where had this come from? I wasn’t threatening the College, its centenary, expecting a high-ranking ISI intelligence and me personally. The room was cool and officer to recite poetry. He first recited it shady. Outside the sun was bright. Diane in Urdu and then in English. was exercising Jet, the retired landmine detection dog. She was enjoying the morning Oh Eagle do not fear the cross winds, among the grapefruit and orange trees before They are blowing to make you fly higher. it got too hot. A shiver went down my spine and I could He tried to put me at my ease. say nothing. This Muslim Brigadier Intelligence officer had spoken something ‘I know how upsetting this must be,’ he said beautiful to encourage me in a difficult looking me directly in the eye. ‘You have situation. I needed to hear it. What was devoted five years of your life to leading he saying? It was hard in the midst of Edwardes College and this is how they our apprehensions to take on board the treat you!’ He paused for effect. Did I hear message. How should I understand it? the echo of the General’s remarks of the ‘Cross winds’, ‘let’s fly, and let’s use these previous night? obstacles to help us soar. Don’t fear the winds – the cross winds.’ He seemed aware ‘My boss’ – he never used names – ‘wants you to know that we will sort out the problem, of some jet stream that had somehow caught me in its slipstream. How far away now and the College centenary will be the event of the ‘in Peshawar.’ Again, I thought I heard was the chestnut tree on the school bank the words of the General. I didn’t mind a little overlooking the serene River Severn? hyperbole in this situation. I reminded myself The Brigadier knew better than I did the dynamics of the troubles I was facing. that his ‘boss’, General Mahmood, was the He must have had regular meetings with second most powerful person in Pakistan. Abu Zubaydah and other key al-Qaeda and Taliban members. The Brigadier laid out a plan that involved ‘tasking,’ as he put it, a plain clothed ‘agent’… to ‘infiltrate’ the conspirators… and ‘neutralise’ their machinations. It sounded frighteningly ‘cloak-and-dagger’. He gave me the name and phone number of the chief plain-clothed ‘operative’. ‘You can contact him at any time by phone and you can also contact me or come and see me at ISI HQ.’ All this sounded reassuring and I was pleased at how quickly things were moving. Asif was right. Fifteen minutes with the General could move things fast.
We moved on to a detailed discussion of how the ISI and other security services would work with the college and me to neutralise the moves that were developing against the college like dust devils on an autumn day.
‘I knew that I was a very small fish swimming with big sharks in dangerous waters.’ Early the next week a plain-clothed agent called Ali came to see me. He was a small clean-shaven man with a businesslike approach. We met in my house in the afternoon to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. He slipped in by the side gate and we sat in the study. It had one door that opened into the living room at one side and another opposite it that opened into the wide and gloomy passageway outside the kitchen. All and sundry tended to come into this corridor either to see me with files and other business or to go to the kitchen to drink tea, and gossip with Yusuf. I had told Yusuf to keep all visitors outside and that my meeting must not be disturbed. Ali sat with his back to the glass fronted book cabinet. He could see the garden with the grapefruit and lemon trees and the great trunk of the peepul tree. The fruit trees were in blossom and the delicate scent wafted in through the window. The sun was bright but it was dark in the study. I sat in my swivel chair with my back to my desk and the window. The parakeets’ squawking seemed subdued in the afternoon heat. ‘We will make contact with the conspirators,’ said Ali. ‘Our aim is to infiltrate them. We will tell them that
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we want to work with them against the Principal because we too do not like him and have grievances against him. We will make it clear that we want to be part of their operation. Don’t worry; we will make up a good story. We know these sorts of people. We will work to win their confidence. only then will we make a move against them.’ I listened carefully as he spoke about the under-cover operation. He gave few details and it was clear that it would be entirely clandestine. He told me that not even I would know what was going on. They might contact me from time to time with updates or requests for information. He gave me a mobile phone number in case I needed to contact him for any reason. ‘I will come and see you again soon,’ he concluded. He rose and we shook hands, and I escorted him out by the side veranda doors and discretely to the gate on Tariq Road. He melted away into the crowds of Peshawar. The ISI agents never said openly anything about any individuals they were targeting. I was left guessing what they were up to and whom they were dealing with. A few weeks after this encounter I decided to call a meeting of the College academic staff and make a statement. There were rumours circulating about the inspection team, the College finances, and a possible legal challenge from the Church about the date we had chosen to celebrate the centenary. Peshawar is always full of whispers, but these were close to home and it felt uncomfortable. There had been a notice in the Frontier Post saying: ‘Why is there an attempt to distort the history of the College? The celebrations are taking place in April, while the first classes started on 1st May 1900.’ – Signed by the Moderator Bishop’s Commissary and the officers of the Diocese of Peshawar. This looked like the work of Sereph Tumey, who seemed to be acting as some sort of lay bishop and proxy for the real Bishop, who was away in London as usual in his new job. I guessed his hand was behind these machinations. Storm Warning: Riding the Crosswinds in the Pakistan-Afghan Borderlands is published by Radcliffe Press
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Experience Durham Bringing Sport, Music, the Arts and Volunteering together Quentin Sloper, Head of Sport, Music and Theatre and Vicky Ridley, Experience Durham Project Manager
Team Durham Looking back to the golden summer of 2012 and the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, Durham students both past and present were well represented. Gold medals were won by alumni rower Sophie Hosking (BSc Natural Sciences, Trevelyan, 2004-07) and current student Lily van den Broecke (BA Philosophy, Politics & Economics, Castle, 2011-), who coxed a Paralympic crew to victory. Back to Durham and we’ve had a strong start to the academic year but it is a very different situation when you become the university that everyone wants to beat. It is something we are going to have to come to terms with very quickly if we are to achieve what we are capable of this year. Last summer saw us wave farewell to Senior Hockey Coach Gavin Featherstone. Despite the loss of one of our key coaching staff, the club has continued to flourish with the men’s and women’s hockey teams both looking well placed to push for British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and National League honours this season.
Our Boat Club, who have welcomed a host of new staff, have had a very strong start to the academic year. The quality of the squad and the level of intensity in their training suggest that DUBC is on course for another golden year. Our men’s Rugby Union Club has started this year as it finished last year, by winning. The four men’s teams went through the whole of October without dropping a single point between them. That level of consistency will be tough to emulate across a seven month season, but early signs suggest that all of our rugby teams can be incredibly successful.
Campus in Stockton hosted its first BBL fixture in November and a 300-strong crowd roared the team to victory. The team were then recorded for Sky TV, playing against the Plymouth Raiders. Both our men’s and women’s football clubs started the year in fantastic fashion. The women, playing in the Premier League for the first time, look like they are going to be able to compete with the best and have every chance of going all of the way whilst the men, playing in Northern Conference Division 1, cannot be ruled out of achieving yet another promotion.
The women’s Rugby Union also started with great promise. A first-day-of-the-season victory against traditional women’s rugby powerhouse, Birmingham, helped to set the scene, and the club, which now has a BUCS second team, can achieve a great deal this year.
Our men’s and women’s lacrosse clubs look as strong as ever. The women’s club has just been awarded Performance status, the first university in Britain to receive the accolade. Last year ended up being something of a disappointing season for the club at both first and second team level but early evidence suggests that this could be an outstanding season.
Our Basketball Club had a great start to the year. The men, competing in the British Basketball League (BBL) and BUCS started very brightly. Few would bet against them making the BBL playoffs and the BUCS final based on early season form. Queen’s
It’s too early in the year to be making predictions but early signs suggest that we can build on last year’s success and have a very special year.
Image captions left to right: Lily van den Broecke (far right) and team; men’s Rugby Union; women’s football; men’s basketball.
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Experience Durham supports students participating in sport, music, volunteering and drama and the first half of the 2012-13 academic year has been full of great performances.
Durham Student Theatre Durham students do not just perform in Durham, but represent the University on public platforms across the country. Last summer several theatre companies took shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where they were very well received. Castle Theatre Company’s successful production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream toured Britain, and was performed in numerous venues. In conjunction with Durham World Heritage Site, current students and alumni wrote and performed a show entitled ‘Bishops Move’, at the Tower of London.
Once Michaelmas term was underway, the Assembly Rooms were regularly packed and many other venues, including the Monks Dormitory in the Cathedral, Durham Town Hall, Empty Shop and the Senate Chamber in Durham Castle, staged a diverse range of shows from Oscar Wilde’s Salome, John Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. It has been a particularly impressive term, including student-written adaptations of The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo and Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. Epiphany term is set to be an exciting one for theatre, as from the 19th to the 23rd February, the 38th annual Durham Drama Festival will take place. It is Durham Student Theatre’s highlight of the year, showcasing new writing and the vibrancy and variety of student theatre in Durham. Also taking place is the highly anticipated Fame which is being performed in Durham’s Gala Theatre by the Durham Light Opera Group (DULOG). Fame will be DULOG’s highlight of the year. As the only studentled show in the academic year to take place in the Gala Theatre, the production gives DULOG performers and directors the
Image captions left to right: 39 Steps; 39 Steps; Salome; Salome.
opportunity to showcase their talent to a diverse audience of students, staff and local community members. Fame follows hugely successful past DULOG Gala shows, including Oklahoma, The Producers and West Side Story. DULOG President Hannah Howie (BSc Natural Science, Hatfield College) is delighted to be bringing the musical Fame to the Gala. She says: ‘Fame was chosen for its relevance and accessibility to students, as it follows young people making decisions about their future.’ DULOG itself has certainly impacted upon the lives of those students involved with the organisation, fostering their talent and giving them opportunities to perform, indeed several DULOG alumni have gone on to study at well-renowned drama schools. If past Gala shows are anything to go by, Fame will be a highly anticipated, brilliantly performed and enjoyable production; indeed, Hannah believes that: ‘Fame will be a spectacle for all ages, especially for those who remember the original and were inspired to wear leg-warmers!’
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Experience Durham
(cont’d) Make a Difference Day; SCA in the community.
Student Volunteering Student volunteering activities got off to a record-breaking start, with Student Community Action (SCA) hosting project fairs both in Durham and at Queen’s Campus. Over 940 students came through the doors, two full days of student inductions were held, and 1,400 Durham students are now placed as volunteers on a wide variety of projects run by both SCA and Team Durham Community.
Volunteers dedicate their time to a wide variety of projects. Now in its sixth year, several volunteers from Durham Union Society are supporting the ‘Second Chance’ project, organised by The Cyrenians, a charity that supports vulnerable, disadvantaged and homeless people. Volunteers coach service users in debating skills to improve their self-confidence and communication skills. Many students supported Make a Difference Day in late October, hosting tea parties for local elderly residents, and a team of staff and student volunteers built an otter holt to help with local conservation.
The SCA Thurston Project, founded in memory of Adam Thurston (Law, Hild Bede, 1991-94) goes from strength to strength, with volunteers working with local young people in Bowburn to develop their selfconfidence through the performing arts. Before Christmas, volunteers facilitated a community pantomime, loosely based on the story of Aladdin. Student volunteers now run weekly computer classes in the City library to support local members of the community to access and use the internet and email, and students have supported sessions for local young people to help them to learn to row and take part in a wide variety of other sports.
Student Music Durham music societies continue to provide a great variety of performances. The Durham Opera Ensemble, a society co-founded by award-winning composer Blair Mowat (BA Music, Van Mildert, 2004-07) and Jim Follett (BA Music, Trevelyan College, 2004-07),
presented a black-tie evening of opera scenes in the grand surrounds of the Great Hall in Castle. This highly successful evening was enjoyed by all who could attend, with the Great Hall being sold out two weeks in advance!
College choirs and the University Chamber Choir performed regularly for Evensong in Durham Cathedral and the Hill Orchestra, the University Big Band and Choral Society performed in a variety of locations during the festive season. Epiphany term promises to be as exciting with music societies planning for a showcase event at The Sage in Gateshead and many performances in and around Durham.
For more information about Experience Durham, visit www.durham.ac.uk/experiencedurham or contact experience.durham@durham.ac.uk
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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT In this new feature, we put some teasing questions to a successful young alumnus to gain some insights into his time at Durham and his professional life beyond.
29 year old Peter Moore (Sociology, Collingwood, 2001-04) has recently published Damn His Blood, to critical acclaim, and is working on a second book for one of the largest publishing houses in the UK. He is also a visiting lecturer at City University, London, teaching an MA course in non-fiction writing. Q.So Peter, how does it feel to be a published author? I feel lucky to have had a break, satisfied that I managed to sit in front a computer long enough to get it down and quietly anxious about the thought of people reading it. Q.Is it true you’ve sold the film rights? No. It was read on BBC Radio 4 as a Book of the Week and I know that a production company is considering it at the moment. But no film rights have been sold so far. Q.Who would play you in a film? John Cleese. Q.What advice would you offer to aspiring authors? Write about what you know. Strip two adjectives out of every page you write. Don’t talk about your book until it’s almost finished. Q.If you weren’t an author, what would be your dream job? In a pure fantasy world I’d be the enormously successful and popular manager of Aston Villa Football Club. Q.What are you reading at the moment? Sarah Wise’s Inconvenient People, a social history of madness in the nineteenth century. It’s very good.
Q.Where do you see yourself in five years? Sat at a desk, in the Rare Books Room of the British Library, scrutinising a pile of obscure nineteenth century chapbooks. Hopefully settled into a writing career. Working hard, still learning. Q.What’s your fondest memory of Durham? The hustle and excitement of a Friday in my third year. Dashing up and down the stairs in Dunelm House on a cold winter’s day, between the Palatinate office, the DUCK Office and Kingsgate bar, caught between work on an essay and a pint with friends. Q.What did you learn here? Aside from academic matters of kings, queens and social theorists, I learnt an enormous amount at Durham. I worked in various positions on the student newspaper, travelled to east Africa with the charity committee, ran events in college and hitchhiked to Dublin dressed as Elvis Presley. I supposed I learnt to be bold and to take on responsibility when an opportunity arises.
Q.Describe your perfect day? Supposing I’m in London, I’d get up early and stroll down to the Thames. I would take photographs of the sun rising into a blue sky over the river. I’d have a cup of tea, visit the National Portrait Gallery, eat a light lunch at the Frontline Club and write a little in the afternoon. Later on I’d head out to watch a play in the West End or eat at some informal/hidden restaurant like Polpo Soho. Q.Any guilty pleasures? Life on earth has been greatly improved by the arrival of the dark chocolate Kit Kat. Q.What would your epitaph say? Life on earth was greatly improved by the arrival of the dark chocolate Kit Kat. Damn His Blood: Being a True and Detailed History of the Most Barbarous and Inhumane Murder at Oddingley and the Quick and Awful Retribution (Random House) is on sale now.
Q.Klute or Rixies*? Rixies. You could wander about unlike Klute, which was always so cramped and crowded that you’d always be getting bashed by the elbow of an errant member of the Hatfield second XV. Q.What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done? With two other friends from Durham, I drove a 1988 VW Beetle from London to Limbe in Cameroon for charity – part of an event called The Africa Rally. Amazingly we were first to arrive. *Aka DH1 and various other aliases
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To find out more and to follow Tim on his fantastic adventure, visit: www.thenorthpoleexpedition.com
TRISTAM KAYE To continue the theme of adventure and exploration, Tristam Kaye (MEng, Collingwood College, 2001-05) is also involved in a record-breaking feat of strength and endurance, as the Operations Manager for The Coldest Journey: an attempt to traverse the Antarctic during winter, led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Anton Bowring. By the time you receive this copy of Durham First, the team will be part way through a 273-day trek of over 2,000 miles, and braving temperatures as low as -90°C. Moreover, the Journey will progress through almost total darkness. As Operations Manager, Tristam Kaye (pictured, second from left), will provide communications support to the expedition, from The Coldest Journey Headquarters, based in London.
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TIM WILLIAMSON This year, Tim Williamson (BSc Biomedical Sciences, John Snow College, 2005-08) plans to embark on a 2,200 mile round-trip from Resolute Bay, Canada, to the North Pole. What makes the feat all the more impressive is that he will attempt the expedition on his own, on foot and unaided by skis. It will be a great challenge that will test both his physical and mental strength and will beat the current world record of the greatest distance travelled between human populations. It will also be the most environmentally friendly endeavour of its kind as he will not be using air transport.
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News in Brief
PALATINE CENTRE After four years of development, the Palatine Centre is now officially open for business. Situated next to the newly renamed Bill Bryson Library, the Centre offers a centralised hub for student support services, which were previously situated at various locations around the City. In addition, the Vice-Chancellor’s Office and other University administration, including the Development and Alumni Relations Office, have moved from Old Shire Hall to new locations in the Centre. The Law School is also now located in the Palatine Centre, occupying brand new purpose-built facilities, which include the Harvard-style Hogan Lovells lecture theatre and a fully interactive moot court. These facilities are both firsts for the Law School and for the University. To find out more, visit: www.durham.ac.uk/news/archive
For more information, visit: www.thecoldestjourney.org
Honorary Degrees HUW BEYNON Professor Huw Beynon is a distinguished industrial sociologist of international repute. Born in Ebbw Vale, he studied Economics at the University of Wales and Industrial Sociology at Liverpool University. In 1973 he published one of the classics of twentieth-century sociology, Working for Ford. He joined Durham University in 1977, where he researched the mining trade unions and communities, which led to his involvement in contesting the mines closure programme. Huw Benyon is being awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters.
GRAHAM JOHNSON Graham Johnson is a pianist and lieder accompanist, who has performed with the world’s foremost vocalists to critical acclaim. Johnson is particularly noted for his commercial recordings of Schubert Lieder and the scholarship of his liner notes for these recordings. He has a long-standing artistic relationship with the Wigmore Hall and is Chairman of the jury for the Wigmore Hall Song Competition. He is Senior Professor of Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has led a biennial scheme for Young Songmakers since 1985. Graham Johnson is being awarded an honorary Doctor of Music.
KEN WEST Ken West is a pioneer of Natural Burials. In 1993, he established the world’s first Green Burial Service, and today there are over 260 natural burial sites across the UK and in North America, Australia and New Zealand. He was awarded an MBE in 2002 for his services to burial and cremation. Ken West is being awarded an honorary Master of Arts.
VALERIE AMOS Baroness Valerie Amos is the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator. In 1989 she was appointed Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission. In 2003 she became Secretary of State for International Development and in 2010 was the British High Commissioner to Australia. She is a champion of human rights and throughout her career has contributed to the development of cohesive societies across the world. Valerie Amos is being awarded an honorary Doctor of Civil Law.
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Alumni News
Department News
Queen’s Birthday Honours
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THEOLOGY & RELIGION Durham Professor Appointed by Vatican as ‘Consultor’ to Pontifical Council
Our best wishes to all alumni who received a Queen’s Birthday Honour in 2012: Nicholas Pitts, BEM (Education, College of St Hild & St Bede, 1977); Professor Monica Grady, CBE (Chemistry & Geology, St Aidan’s College, 1979); Professor Paul Wellings, CBE (Ecology, Graduate Society, 1976); Jonathan Wilks, CMG (Natural Sciences, University College, 1989); Leslie Ferrar, CVO (Chemistry, St Mary’s College, 1976); Keith Orrell, MBE (Education, University College, 1959); Roy Bentham, MBE (Geography of Middle East, Graduate Society, 1973); Fiona Turner, MBE (English Literature, St Mary’s College, 1995); Charles Judge, MBE (Laws (International & European Legal Studies), College of St Hild & St Bede, 2003); Peter Campbell, OBE (Economics & Politics, University College, 1989); Dr Alison Birkinshaw, OBE (Education, College of St Hild & St Bede, 1984); Dr Ian Bradley, OBE (Medicine, King’s College, 1960); Professor Alison Swinfen, OBE (French & German, St Aidan’s College, 1990); Professor Peter Sharp, OBE (Physics, Van Mildert College, 1969); David Clay, MBE (Middle East Politics, Ustinov College, 2003).
Justin Welby (Theology, St John’s, 1989-92) has been appointed as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. The Right Reverend Welby, currently the Bishop of Durham, will take up the post in March this year, succeeding Dr Rowan Williams, who himself holds an honorary degree from Durham University. Bishop Justin trained in preparation for ordination at Cranmer Hall, St John’s College, and is remembered as a student with a deep faith and personal warmth, and a hard working, but humble ordinand of great ability. The Reverend Mark Tanner, Warden of Cranmer Hall described Justin as ‘a leader, an entrepreneur, a peace-maker, a teacher, and an often prophetic voice speaking wisdom into broken situations.’ Reverend Professor David Wilkinson, Principal of St John’s College, said: ‘We are delighted at the news of this appointment and also want to pledge our support to Bishop Justin and the Church of England at this key time. As one of our former students and our diocesan Bishop, we have had the privilege of experiencing Justin’s creativity, integrity and earthed spirituality. He combines humility with joyful confidence in the gospel.’
Paul Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies (CCS) at Durham University, has been appointed as a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the next quinquennial period. Of his appointment, Professor Murray said, ‘I am honoured. I understand that a key part of my role will be to represent the relevant concerns and specific contributions from the many UK-based interests that can usefully be drawn into the work of the Pontifical Council. As such, I in turn look forward to consulting and working closely with appropriate agencies and individuals, and the awakening commercial interests in this area, who identify principles deriving from Catholic Social Teaching as relevant to their mission and who are doing such significant work.’
We would also like to offer very special congratulations to Sir Timothy Smit, KBE (Archaeology & Anthropology, Hatfield College, 1976) who was awarded a knighthood.
www.durham.ac.uk/shop wear it with pride
TUESDAY 22ND – SATURDAY 26TH
Durham University Light Opera Group (DULOG) Fame Gala Theatre, Durham SATURDAY 26TH
Geography Reunion Dinner Hatfield College
SATURDAY 9TH
PG Study Day: ‘Catholic Perspectives on Death and Dying’ St Cuthbert’s Catholic Chaplaincy The D8 is a worldwide series of Continuing Professional Development workshops. TUESDAY 19TH
APRIL 2013 FRIDAY 26TH – SATURDAY 27TH
Durham University Canoe Club three-yearly reunion Durham
JUNE 2013 SATURDAY 22ND – SUNDAY 23RD
FEBRUARY 2013
D8 – Frankfurt with Dr Christos Tsinopoulos TBC 18:00–20:30
Trevelyan College JCR Alumni Weekend for Recent Graduates Durham
FRIDAY 22ND – SUNDAY 24TH
THURSDAY 21ST
FRIDAY 28TH – SUNDAY 30TH
Josephine Butler Durham Reunion Weekend Durham
D8 – Geneva with Dr Graham Dietz – Trust in Uncertain Times Hotel Royal 18:00–20:30
The Van Mildert Association Annual Reunion Durham
MARCH 2013
FRIDAY 22ND
Hatfield College Reunion Weekend Durham
FRIDAY 1ST – SUNDAY 3RD
St Chad’s College Chadstide Northern Festival Weekend Durham SATURDAY 2ND – SUNDAY 3RD
Joan Bernard Memorial Trevelyan College WEDNESDAY 6TH
Mass of Thanksgiving for the CCS, followed by an evening reception St Cuthbert’s Catholic Chaplaincy Durham FRIDAY 8TH – SUNDAY 10TH
St Chad’s College Southern Festival Weekend London
D8 – Sri Lanka with Prof Sue Miller TBC 18:00–20:30 FRIDAY 22ND – SUNDAY 24TH
Grey College Association Reunion Weekend Durham Collingwood College Ruby Reunion Weekend Durham
JULY 2013 MONDAY 1ST JULY – MONDAY 30TH SEPT
Lindisfarne Gospels Palace Green, Durham SATURDAY 6TH
Henley Royal Regatta (TBC) Henley-on-Thames
SEPTEMBER 2013 SATURDAY 21ST – SUNDAY 22ND
Trevelyan College Alumni Weekend Durham
For more information, please see www.dunelm.org.uk/events or telephone +44 (0)191 334 6305
CROM/12/12/009
JANUARY 2013