Scene setting
A collage by the local artist, Alex Hoare, to remind me of my time at the Theatre Royal Winchester
Epilogue
‘It’s true though, isn’t it? So much family stuff is mythology.
S**t that just gets handed down,
and you never know for sure what really happened and what’s made up.
Nobody ever thinks to sit down and pass it on.
The truth of it.
Before you know it, your history becomes hearsay.’
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An extract from Lazy Bones by Mark Billingham
Just before 'lockdown', I went to my local hospital for the latest in a series of tests to establish the cause of a health issue that has manifested itself in the last few years. With Covid-19 keeping the NHS very busy, it was a few weeks before the specialist handling my case phoned to discuss the results and tell me his diagnosis.
His news hasn't shock me and, in a perverse way, I am rather relieved to learn that the disorder was probably the result of my 1991 RTA . As it's nearly three decades since the crash, this probably means that any worsening in my condition will be gradual rather than dramatic. Nonetheless, it has been a 'wake-up' call and with no cure or treatment in prospect, I have decided that now is the ideal time to reappraise my priorities, set new challenges and re-write my 'bucket list'.
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Many years ago I started to write a book. It was an assemblage of management ideas that had shaped my various careers. I illustrated their relevance by plotting them along the timeline of my working life - akin to an autobiography.
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But now that I have used this website to share many of those management and leadership ideas with you, I have decided to crack on and use my time to provide my family with a written record of much that has happened during my life and has impacted on theirs. I have already written nine chapters but have only reached July 1966 (the month England won the World Cup and I got married). So there's every chance this is going to be one heck of a large volume (that's if my memory hasn't failed me in the meantime). I can already hear my younger grandson saying "Nonno, I'd rather have the audio version".
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I hope that you have enjoyed the leadership and management journey we've been on and that you found much to interest and inform you. Agreed an internet search or a visit to your local library would have provided you with much of the content on leadership - after all, there are many out there who make their living by writing and/or providing training on the topic. I just hope that I was able to distill the subject into a series of topics that were digestible yet informative.
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I close by wishing you every success for the future . Enjoy a fulfilling life - one that offers new challenges and endless possibilities. And let your watchword be boleh. It's the Malay word for can. Anything's possible...believe me.
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“I have decided to keep a full journal, in the hope that my life will perhaps seem more interesting when it is written down.”
'Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years' Sue Townsend, English writer and humourist (1946-2014)
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