Spring 2004 - University of Kent

Kent Bulletin
Spring 2004 • Number 42
The magazine for alumni and friends of the University of Kent

Alumni connections
and events
Alumni in Hong Kong
The Chancellor, Sir Crispin
Tickell, and Pamela Cross,
Director of the International
Office, met with nearly 60 Kent
alumni in Hong Kong in
December. Pictured: Esther Fong K99,
Dennis Ho D97 and Professor Chan
Yan Chong, a former research fellow in
Management Science at Kent.
Kent Law Clinic
Anniversary Dinner
The Kent Law Clinic recently
celebrated 30 years since the
foundation of a clinic in the Law
School and ten years of the
present Kent Law Clinic.
Originally established in 1973
and the first in the UK, the Law
Clinic is a free legal advice and
representation agency run by
staff and students, with local
volunteer solicitors and
barristers. It is the main vehicle
for clinical legal education in KLS,
enabling students to learn
through supervised participation
in conducting real cases, and to
provide a valuable service to
members of the public.
The present Law Clinic has been
in operation since 1993, and in
the last ten years Clinic students
have helped clients, through
litigation and negotiation, obtain
over £500,000. A good service
is also provided where no
compensation is recovered, and
in the many areas (eg security of
tenure, immigration, family
matters) where compensation is
not the issue. The Clinic also
assists local groups and
organisations (including a local
church, voluntary sector
agencies, community groups)
with constitutional, leasing and
organisational matters.
Pictured: David de Saxe (former
head of the Employment Tribunals
at Ashford, Simon Johnson (Head of
Stour Chambers, Canterbury),
Catherine Carpenter (Clinic Solicitor,
R93), John Pritchard (Solicitor, Vizards
Wyeth Solicitors, Medway, D91),
Lorna Collopoy (Clinic Solicitor, D88),
John Fitzpatrick (Director, Kent Law
Clinic).
Events coming up:
UKC Radio Reunion – 2 October
Contact Station Manager Ellie Cook on ec4@kent.ac.uk
Students’ Union Summer Ball
Alumni are welcome to join current students at the Summer Ball.
To find out more, contact Stephanie Bowen on S.M.Bowen@kent.ac.uk.
Careers Fair
This year on 4 March, over 60
graduates met up over lunch, and
then spent the afternoon talking
to students about their careers.
The campus was buzzing with the
last day of the Student’s Union
elections, but a good number of
students did visit the Fair to seek
advice and tips on ‘life after Kent’.
Cathedral Concert
The annual Colyer-Fergusson
Concert, this year featuring the
combined forces of the
University of Kent Music Society
Chorus and Symphony
Orchestra in Canterbury
Cathedral’s magnificent Nave,
took place on 13 March. The
programme was Elgar’s
extraordinary arrangement of
the ‘Overture’ to Handel’s second
‘Chandos Anthem’, followed by
the ‘Enigma Variations’, with its
overwhelming ‘Nimrod’
movement. The two-hundredstrong
University Chorus then
joined forces with the orchestra
and soloists to perform
Beethoven’s Mass in C. Director
of Music Susan Wanless
conducted the choir and
orchestra (made up of students,
staff and some alumni) and
outstanding soloists Catherine
Mikic, Susan Legg, Andrew
Mackenzie-Wicks and Colin
Campbell.
Duel personalities
Thanks to an idea from
Andrew Courtney K93,
who was, during his time
at Kent, the Fencing Club
Social Secretary, President
and Men’s Captain, alumni
fencers have, since March
1999, come together for
a weekend of informal
fencing with current
students and fencing
alumni.
Pictured: Neil Bromley K95, former Captain, with
current Fencing Captain, Sarah Scholtz.
2

Kent Bulletin 42 • Spring 2004
Contents
Features
Cover: Reed bed in Kent;
above: Red pot and green
bottle, both paintings by
Elizabeth Akehurst E69.
Elizabeth studied Maths at
Kent 1969-72. She is now
a full-time painter, and there
has been an exhibition of her
paintings in the Keynes
College Atrium since January.
For more information contact
her on 01634 371502.
Design:The Wells Partnership
Tel: 01622 831661
www.wells.uk.net
Printers: Eclipse Colour
Tel: 01536 483401
Special thanks to Chris Lancaster
and Lesley Farr in the University
Print Unit, and to Posie Bogan
and Hilary Saunders in C&DO
Editor: Killara Burn
Kent Bulletin
Communications & Development
University of Kent
Canterbury CT2 7NZ
Tel: 01227 824345
Fax: 01227 827912
Email: kent-bulletin@kent.ac.uk
www.kent.ac.uk/alumni
Kent Bulletin is published in
spring and autumn every year
for alumni and friends of the
University of Kent. It is sent to all
alumni worldwide who regularly
update or confirm their contact
details with us.
The media: part of the problem or part of the solution? – Mark Laity 8
Families and children 12
The University and its region – Vice-Chancellor Professor David Melville 14
Alumni life: Events and tourism officer – Claire Salley R00 16
Stage right – Jamie Beddard K85 17
Grownup gap year – Joanna Griffiths K82 18
Letter from Madrid – Jonathan Ray K82 19
News and Views
Alumni connections 2
University news 4
The Development Programme 7
Enterprise at Kent 11
Who’s What Where? 20
3

University News
Chatham on the Medway, site of the new Medway School of Pharmacy
Research & Development, and
Director of the Sandwich
Laboratories UK, is set to be a
major force for pharmacy. Under
the leadership of its first Head,
Professor Clare Mackie, the
School is set to grow substantially
over the next six years. With the
anticipated appointment of 24
new members of staff, student
numbers are expected to rise to
over 430 by 2010.
New School of Pharmacy
now open
The new Medway School of
Pharmacy officially opened in
January and will be accepting its
first intake of students in
September. A joint venture of the
universities of Kent and
Greenwich, the School is
supported by the international
pharmaceutical company Pfizer
Ltd, which is providing
sponsorship worth £500,000
over a five-year period.
The School, formally opened by
Dr Annette Doherty, Senior
Vice-President, Pfizer Global
University of Kent tops
funding league
The University of Kent attracted
the highest percentage increase in
Government funding for
universities in the country this
year. The University has been
allocated an 8.6% increase in
funding from the Higher
Education Funding Council for
England (HEFCE), which means
that next year the University will
receive £45.9m in HEFCE
funding, bringing its total budget
to over £90m. In addition, the
University has recently received
£50m in capital funding
specifically to develop a new
William Gullick, Professor of
Cancer Biology
Biosciences: Two new
major grants for cancer
research
Dr Phil Blower and Dr Dan Lloyd
– working with Dr Paul Marsden
at St Thomas’s Hospital in
London – have been awarded
£347,906 from the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research
(EPSRC) and the Medical
Research Councils (MRC). Dan
Lloyd: ‘Hypoxia, a shortage of
oxygen in tissues, occurs in many
diseases such as stroke, heart
disease and cancer. It is one of
the main causes of cancer
treatment failure, since hypoxic
tumours are often resistant to
conventional radiotherapy and
chemotherapy. This multidisciplinary
project will involve
the synthesis and evaluation of
molecules, coupled to radioactive
isotopes that specifically target
hypoxic tissue. It is hoped that
the work will result in the
development of both imaging
procedures to locate hypoxic
tissues within the body, and
therapeutic strategies for the
treatment of resistant hypoxic
tumours.’
Breast Cancer Campaign (BCC)
has awarded £78,620 to
Professor William Gullick, for a
three-year project that could
improve drug treatment for
breast cancer. Herceptin, recently
licensed to treat patients with
breast cancer, is a very effective
treatment and has fewer side
effects than other cancer drugs. It
works by binding to a protein (cerb-2)
on cancer cells that in turn
prevents the cells growing and
dividing. Approximately 20% of
women with breast cancer have
unusually high levels of this
protein, but Herceptin does not
appear to work in all cases. By
4

accessible to as many people as
possible. In addition, the
University has seen an increase in
its research funding, and continues
to attract increasing numbers of
international students.
Professor Melville said the extra
funding would underpin the
University’s widening
participation expansion, and that
the money will be used to invest
in new facilities and staff, including
20 new professorial
appointments.
Vice-Chancellor Professor David Melville
campus in Medway.
Ruchir Joshi is Visiting
Writer from India
Vice-Chancellor Professor David
Melville said: ‘The award
demonstrates a clear recognition
that our development strategy is
the right one. It is a real vote of
confidence.’ Working with further
education colleges and other
higher education institutions in
the region, the University has
developed a range of initiatives to
ensure university education is
looking at its effects on cancer
cells in the lab, Professor Gullick
hopes to establish why so few
patients respond to the drug,
which patients are most likely to
respond and how we can make
this drug more widely useful.
Professor Bill Gullick, Dr Dan
Lloyd and Dr Phil Blower are
members of the Cancer
Research Group, established to
reflect the growing amount of
cancer research activities within
the Department of Biosciences
at Kent.
Ruchir Joshi is the 2004 Charles
Wallace Trust Visiting Writer
from India. Joshi is the author of
The Last Jet-Engine Laugh,
published by Flamingo in 2001.
The Daily Telegraph was ‘amazed
by the bravery of this first novel’
and applauds Joshi for writing ‘in
the joyous tradition’ of Laurence
Sterne, with ‘Sterne’s gift for
digressions...and Joshi has the
master’s eye for his surroundings...
this is surely a great moment for
a national literature.’ Ruchir Joshi
has scripted and produced film
documentaries for BBC and
Channel 4 on food, cricket, Baul
folk musicians, and the western
media’s constructions of Calcutta.
He is currently writing a novel set
in Calcutta during World War II.
Rowers rule
The Kent men’s first four in action
The men’s first crew won the recent Medway fours head of the river event,
and the women won their novice event. At the 2004 Colours Ball, two of the
Rowing Club’s officers, Sylvain Barde (Chairman of the Club) and James
Lowther (Treasurer), were awarded green colours ‘in recognition of their
dedication and commitment beyond the call of duty.’
University of the
Transmanche on course to
welcome first students
The University of the
Transmanche, an innovative
cross-Channel university project
Kent developed with the three
Lille Universities and the
University of the Littoral, is
getting ready to welcome its first
intake of students in September
2004. At a symposium in
November, teaching and research
staff from the five universities
finalised course details for the
unique Transmanche Masters
degree. Students will be able to
choose from a range including
European Law, International
Commerce, Health and Medical
5
Photo: Heather Coleman

University news
Sciences and Ethics. Vice-
Chancellor Professor David
Melville said: ‘The Transmanche
University is the first of its kind
on both sides of the Channel.
We are creating a real
transfrontier higher education
institution, so it is particularly
fitting that we are opening our
doors to our first students in the
centenary of the signing of the
Entente Cordiale.’
The Transmanche University is
being jointly funded by education
departments in France and the
United Kingdom, as part of a
£1.4m education accord signed at
the Anglo-French summit in Le
Touquet between Prime Minister
Tony Blair and President Jacques
Chirac in 2003. It will be
developing undergraduate
programmes in addition to the
postgraduate courses already
offered, and there are plans to
introduce lifelong learning
initiatives and professional
development programmes. The
Transmanche University will also
contribute to the economic
development of regions on both
sides of the English Channel.
Kent student wins prize
University of Kent Film Studies
student, Mike Walden, who made
Two DICE students observing an endangered gold
eyelash viper from Costa Rica
the best short film on last year’s
undergraduate filmmaking
module, Moving Image
Production, was presented with
the Cranbrook Golden Windmill
Award by the Cranbrook Film
Society at a special public
screening of his film on 24 March.
He received
a cheque for
£250 for his
film, 250/251.
The panel of
judges
included two
BAFTA judges, a film lecturer and
a filmmaker.
Mike’s short, about a footballcrazy
boy and his relationship
with his father, competed against
work by numerous talented
student filmmakers from
universities and colleges in the
region. He hopes to write and
direct films professionally and is
currently applying to MA courses
in filmmaking. Catherine Grant,
Director of the Kent Film Studies
programme said ‘We are
delighted for Mike. He has
produced an accomplished and
beautiful short film of rare
intensity that will clearly have a
life beyond the university course
for which it was produced. We
think the prize is well deserved.’
Jersey Zoo
Links between the
University’s Durrell
Institute of Conservation
and Ecology (DICE) and
the Durrell Wildlife
Conservation Trust
(DWCT), formerly
known as Jersey Zoo,
have recently been
strengthened. Eighteen
third-year
undergraduates in the
Biodiversity and
Management and
Conservation BSc
programme attended
workshops and
presentations on
overseas conservation
efforts by Jersey staff
over a two-day visit to
People
Paul Allain is now Professor of Theatre and Performance. Peter
Brown is Professor of English. Professors Davina Cooper,
formerly Professor of Law and Research Dean, and Didi
Herman, formerly Professor of Law and Social Change, both at
Keele University, have joined the Kent Law School. Professor
Tim Jordan, formerly of the University of Nottingham, is now
Professor in Cognitive Psychology at Kent. The first Head of the
new Medway School of Pharmacy is Professor Clare Mackie,
from The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. Professor Mackie
holds the prestigious new Pfizer Chair of Pharmacy. Professor Ian
Marshall, previously Research Leader, Autonomous Systems at BT,
took up the Chair in Distributed Systems in Computing in January.
Dr Mark Van Vugt, currently Senior Lecturer at
the University of Southampton, will take up the
Chair in Social Psychology at Kent on 1
September. Professor John Baldock is the new
Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, succeeding
Professor Chris Hale. Dr Anthony Ward is
Clare Mackie the new Associate Dean for the University of Kent
at Medway; Dr Ward will also continue as Master
of Darwin College. Ian Black is the new Director
of Personnel. Professor Richard Burns
(Biosciences) was made Professor Emeritus in
January. Dr Richard Bodmer has been given
the Presidential Award for 2003 by the Chicago
Ian Black
Zoological Society. Dr Bodmer is Reader in
Conservation Ecology in the University’s Durrell
Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE)
based in the Department of Anthropology. The
Award has been made in recognition of his
‘personal work on the sustainable use of natural
resources by communities throughout South
Sally Fincher
America.’
Sally Fincher, Lecturer in the Computing
Laboratory, has been awarded the 2003
Undergraduate Teaching Award from the Institute
of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE)
Computer Society.
Simon Campbell Dr Elizabeth Mansfield, from the Institute of
Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, has
been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. She is currently
looking at ways of synthesising software design that has in it the
principle of ‘optimisation’. An example of ‘optimisation’ is the
calculation of aircraft flight paths that use least fuel for a given wind
pattern, she explained. Dr David Oliver, Honorary Senior
Lecturer at the Kent Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences
(KIMHS) and Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Medical Director
of the Wisdom Hospice, has been awarded the Humanitarian
Award by the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations. Dr
Simon Campbell, member of University Council, was appointed
as President Elect of the Royal Society of Chemistry in November.
the Trust. They also had a
behind-the-scenes tour of the
reptile house, where captive
breeding programmes are helping
many of the world’s most
endangered reptiles.
6

Development programme
A CHANCE TO PUT SOMETHING BACK
Give as you earn
Give as you earn (GAYE) enables you to give
to charity from your gross
salary. By making a gift this
way, donors are ‘rewarded’
by having their taxable
income reduced by the
value of their gift. Many
staff at Kent give through GAYE, to good
causes at Kent, including Seeds for Africa, the
Music Bursary Scheme, the Overseas Bursary
Fund, and the Annual Fund, and to charities
outside Kent. To find out whether GAYE is
available where you work, consult your
employer.
Music
A recent graduate and friend of the University
has made a very generous anonymous gift to
Music at Kent. His contribution has made
possible additional student music bursaries and
a special concert in memory of his late wife.
The University’s programme of free lunchtime
concerts is generously supported by Furley
Page Solicitors in Canterbury. The series brings
a wonderful range of talented and well-known
musicians to perform at Kent. Furley Page are
also sponsors of the Brodsky Quartet concerts
at the University.
Sports
The University funds several sports bursaries
for star athletes at Kent. Past recipients have
included national and international
competitors in judo, swimming, netball,
football, hockey and trampoline. In 2003 the
Alumni programme awarded a bursary to
Daniela Riva, a star volleyball player from
Vicenza, Italy, now following on from her Kent
MA to do a PhD in Medical Statistics.
Annual Fund (UKC Development
Trust)
Four new trustees joined the Trust this year.
Margot Chaundler OBE R67 (née Kirk), Bursar
of St Paul’s School for Girls; Charlotte Green
E75, BBC Newsreader; Rhonda Smith R68,
Managing Director at GCI Health Care; and
Professor Robert Worcester, Chairman of
MORI and a member of the University’s
Council. They join the Vice-Chancellor,
Professor David Melville CBE, Dr Alister
Dunning, University Treasurer, and Dr James
Bird, former University Treasurer.
At the annual meeting of the Trust in February,
it was agreed to fund another Alumni
Postgraduate Research Scholarship, to assist
the Student Disabilities Unit with their
purchase of equipment for students with
disabilities, and to help the Stage Spiders, a
society made up of Kent students on different
courses, take their community theatre to
schools in Africa.
Sir James Colyer-Fergusson
In 1996, Sir James Colyer-Fergusson made a
very large gift to Music at Kent, which funds an
annual concert (this year in the Cathedral on
13 March) and other special music projects.
Sadly Sir James passed away in January this
year, but he is commemorated at Kent through
the annual Colyer-Fergusson Concert and
other ongoing musical activities.
A very thoughtful and generous man, Sir James
had much earlier created an endowment at
Kent to help young humanities scholars. Each
year £4,000 is available to postgraduates and
young academics in the humanities for help
with their research. This year Dr Sarah Turner
(Film Studies) was awarded £2.000 towards
post-production of the film London Birds Can’t
Fly (commissioned by Carlton TV), which she
directed.
Legacy booklet
The University recently updated its legacy
booklet ‘Investing in the Future: Making your
will’ and posted it to a number of alumni and
friends. If you didn’t receive a copy and
would like one, please let us know.
For further information about any of the
above projects or about making a donation
to the Annual Fund, please contact Killara
Burn at the address on p 2.
7

The media: part of the
MARK LAITY
Mark Laity is Special Adviser to the Supreme Allied Commander
Europe, Commander of all NATO operations, and Senior Fellow at the
Centre for Defence Studies at King’s College London. This article was
adapted from an Open Lecture he gave at the University in December.
He is pictured (centre) above with (L) US Chairman of Committee of the Chiefs of the Military Medical Services in
NATO (COMEDS) and (R) Surgeon General of Belgian Armed Forces, General Roger Van Hoof, during their joint press
conference on the health effects of depleted uranium.
Photos: PA Photos
It’s not new that the media matter. It was
Napoleon Bonaparte who said, ‘four hostile
newspapers are more to be feared than
10,000 bayonets’. However it matters more
nowadays: in conventional war, a battle won is
still won, even if it is not publicised, but for
terrorism, publicity is essential to success.
If I asked most people what happened on
9/11, they would say two planes crashed into
the World Trade Centre. Because it wasn’t
filmed and broadcast, the fact that another
two planes were also hijacked, one crashing
into the Pentagon, has become a subtext.
That’s picture power.
The vital role of the media in modern conflict
is because modern conflict is not about our
survival. Nothing the British Armed Forces
have done in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia,
Sierra Leone, East Timor, Iraq – was essential
to our survival. However moral or correct,
these were wars of choice for Britain. This lack
of existential threats means what NATO and
our armed forces do is a matter of choice and
therefore debate.
The media has also changed. In the fifties a BBC
reporter went to Prime Minister Clement Atlee
and said ‘Have you anything to say?’ and when
he said ‘No’, the reporter said ‘Thank you’ and
that was the end of it. That deference is now
gone, which is good. But in its place is a huge
distrust of government, what Onora O’Neill
called ‘a culture of suspicion’. And the media is
the arbiter, because it is the medium of debate.
Michael Ignatieff, one of the more interesting
thinkers on this, has pointed out that when war
becomes a spectator sport through media
coverage, journalists are transformed from
observers to participants and even protagonists.
There is no nation on this planet that could
8
beat NATO or the US in conventional warfare
with tanks, warships or airplanes. Any warfare
therefore is asymmetrical. Opponents of the
West can fight back only by using different
methods, or ignoring our rules, for instance
shooting – not from a nice olive-green vehicle
(so that the US can send in an Apache attack
helicopter) – but from a Red Crescent
ambulance, preferably behind women and
children. And they need to find other areas of
possible weakness in the ‘enemy’, which, in the
US or NATO, is mostly public opinion.
While our opponents use extreme methods –
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction –
western public opinion is for our forces going
in the opposite direction. There are ever-more
restrictions on the weapons we can use, and
the terrorists know this and exploit it. How?
Through the media.
Israel lost the conflict against Hezbollah in
southern Lebanon because they were forced
out by Israeli public opinion. In a very rare
interview, one of the Hezbollah commanders
said, ‘The use of the media as a weapon had
an effect parallel to a battle’. Hezbollah always
made sure they videoed roadside bombs, and
then gave the videos to the Israeli media. ‘By
the use of these films we were able to control
the morale of a lot of Israelis.’
In Kosovo, Milosevic used the western media
to film the bombs that missed, while not
allowing them to see the bombs that hit. So
every bombing shown seemed to be of
collateral damage, and the Serbs would lay on
a bus for the media to see it. Terrorists or
authoritarians have certain advantages – they
can control their own media, exploit
democratic debate in opponent nations and
manipulate western media. And they use the
‘The use of
the media as
a weapon
had an effect
parallel to a
battle’
One World Trade Center
collapses following the
terrorist attack on 11
September, 2001. The New
York Times staff won 08
April, 2002, both Pulitzer
Prizes in photography, for
breaking news for coverage
of the attacks. ...and for
feature photography for its
photographs of the people
enduring protracted conflict
in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This photo is part of the
breaking news package. The
newspaper won a record
seven Pulitzer prizes.
habits of the western media against itself.
The modern media likes bad news, and the
aim of terrorism is to create bad news, so
there is a natural synergy. The media do not
want to help terrorists, but to quote an
American journalist, ‘We don’t cover the plane
that doesn’t crash’.
It’s a complicated world. The media have a lot
to say and not much time to say it. They also
have to win audiences, so they sensationalise
and simplify. Stalin said that every death is a
tragedy; the death of a million, a mere statistic.

problem or part of the solution?
That’s how the media, albeit with different
motives, work as well. When journalists ‘tell a
story’, they’re not trying to give you a factual
summary, rather something that grabs you.
Individuals are grabbed by the plight of
individuals. And an individual who is suffering is
so much more newsworthy than one who is
happy.
I watched with dismay how, in the Kosovo
conflict, the Brussels briefings by the NATO
spokesman were given the same kind of
treatment by the media as the Belgrade
briefings by the Serbs. Likewise in Iraq. I think
the Qatar briefing and the American handling
of it were disastrous. But they were not
deliberate manipulation and lying, unlike the
Iraqis’ practice.
Speed adds to our problems. Journalists work
very, very fast. As a BBC correspondent, I
doing an interview with somebody reading
something in my ear as I was speaking, so the
presenter could ask me about it. This
obsession with speed creates problems – we
report rumours, with caveats, but mistakes are
made. A day is long term in the media; more
than a week to win a war, too long. Kosovo
was 78 days and it was being reported as an
eternity. Remember the stories about Iraq? On
March 31 st the generals were ‘planning for
months’. A week later they’d won.
This rush to judgement can be very damaging.
A couple of years ago, I was unfortunate
enough to be NATO’s spokesman when some
completely inaccurate stories of Italian soldiers
dying of leukaemia caused by NATO’s use of
depleted uranium ammunition, a huge media
sensation. After about two weeks they
disappeared. Why? Because they had no
substance, but this was never acknowledged;
9

The media: part of the problem
or part of the solution?
the media just stopped reporting the issue and
the image of depleted uranium as dangerous
remains.
Globalisation is an important factor. When we
talk about the media, the major players now
are not British, not American, but global, and
the cultures are different. On NATO
operations the local media is actually a much
bigger problem then people ever realise. I was
a spokesman for the NATO operation in
Macedonia in 2001. The Macedonia media was
‘owned’ by hardliners. To keep their jobs, the
journalists had to report lies so as to whip up
hatred and hysteria and encourage a civil war.
Journalists have to ‘be there.’ And part of the
price for being in Baghdad or Belgrade is that
you ‘sup with the devil’. But how long is the
spoon? John Burns (New York Times) is one of
only two winners of a double Pulitzer Prize for
news reporting. He was in Baghdad throughout
the Iraq war, ‘Terrorist totalitarian states and
their ways are nothing new to me, but I felt
from the start that Iraq was in a category by
itself. I felt that that was the central truth that
had to be told about this place. It was also the
essential truth that was untold by the vast
majority of correspondents here. Why?
Because they judged that to keep themselves in
play they had to pretend it was OK. These
were correspondents who thought it was
appropriate to seek the approbation of the
people that governed their lives in Baghdad,
that is, the Ministry of Information and,
particularly, its Director. They took him out for
long candle-lit dinners, plied him with sweet
cakes, with mobile phones at $600 each for
members of his family, and bribes of thousands
of dollars. Senior members of the Information
Ministry took hundreds of thousands of dollars
from television correspondents who then
behaved as if they were in Belgium. They never
mentioned the function of minders…. There is
corruption in our business. We need to get
back to basics: this war should be studied and
talked about. To my mind, in the run up to this
war there was gross abdication of
responsibility.’ A fairly stunning statement. But is
this debate in the papers?
From my position as NATO Spokesperson, we
are on the back foot. The culture of suspicion
has eroded our credibility. Philip Bobbitt, the
author of The Shield of Achilles, about the
nature of history and what it means now, talks
about how ‘the media are well situated to
succeed in their competition with the
government. They are trained to work in the
marketplace and are more nimble than
Above: US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Foreign Secretary
of the United Kingdom Jack Straw talk during a Security Council
meeting on Terrorism 20 January, 2003 at the UN in New York.
Right: A New York City Police officer stands guard outside the
entrance to the New York Times after New York Times Executive
Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd resigned on
Thursday, 05 June 2003, in the wake of a controversy surrounding
reporter Jayson Blair. The Times revealed that Blair had plagarized
and lied in numerous stories.
bureaucrats, quick to spot public trends, can
call on huge capital and rely on sophisticated
managers, and are far more capable than
politicians at the contemporary techniques of
public relations’.
Killing people also goes against prevailing
morals. That may seem an obvious statement,
but do remember the Great War, when it was
acceptable. Western military people (whose
work is sometimes to kill) are in a difficult
position. How do you justify killing when
society increasingly abhors it? Journalists
exacerbate the problem, because, for the story,
they focus on one individual’s death, which can
blow aside the cruel logic of an overall conflict.
This can put the media and military at
loggerheads. To succeed in the war against
terror, we need to put the media at the heart
of policymaking, not just spin. As governments,
There is corruption
in our business
we have to justify to tax payers what we are
doing. If we are not careful, we will find
ourselves in a situation where we cannot fight
terror because we cannot explain why the
fighting is needed. We’ve already seen
situations, for instance the Americans in
Somalia, where an abrupt change in public
mood forced a pullout.
Government needs to do better, but the media
need to accept that they are a weapon,
however unwillingly, in the war on terror –
currently more useful to one side than the
other. How do the Islamic terrorists choose
targets? They go for the Spanish, because they
believe public opinion in Spain is weak. They
are playing hearts and minds. They know they
cannot defeat the US or other European
nations unless they can erode the public will to
sustain the conflict. In Macedonia, where I was
a spokesman, we had a country on the verge
of civil war purely because the people were
afraid there would be a civil war. Because they
were afraid, they were likely to act in a preemptive
aggressive way that would create what
they feared. The media helped create the
climate of fear.
The Guardian’s editor, Alan Russbridger, told
Newsweek in 2000, I think British journalists
don’t think about the big issues enough. I agree.
The US journalists do – bar Fox News! When
the New York Times discovered one of its
reporters, Jayon Blair, was faking stories, they
wrote a 10,000-word apology. A couple of
weeks later the Guardian reported: ‘Reporter’s
plagiarism claims scalp of editor as New York
Times becomes the news’. At the same time,
the Guardian had run the following story: ‘Straw
and Powell had serious doubts over the Iraq
weapons claims’, saying there had been a
meeting at the Waldorf Hotel. A transcript
circulated around NATO of what had
happened at the Waldorf. A week later the
Guardian reported: ‘We said that the Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw and his counterpart Colin
Powell had met in the Waldorf Hotel in New
York shortly before Mr Powell addressed the
UN on February 5. Mr Straw has now made it
clear no such meeting took place. The Guardian
accepts that and apologises for suggesting it did.’
But this was printed in the Guardian’s
‘Corrections and Clarifications’ column on page
25. In other words, that headline, which was
pretty damn serious, (the kind of thing that
created Hutton) was complete fiction. Yet the
correction was buried. In the US people would
have lost their jobs.
I was a journalist for 21 years; I’ve been a
spokesman for four. If you cut me open, I’d
have journalist written through me like a stick
of rock. Journalism is fundamental to
democracy. If the media doesn’t work,
democracy doesn’t work. So this is a dilemma
with no easy answers. The media is part of the
problem and part of the solution – and the
challenge is for the media to accept that. So
far it’s tending to point the finger at others.
10

Enterprise at Kent
SUPPORTING NATIONAL & REGIONAL ECONOMIC SUCCESS
Enterprise Society
As part of the University’s
commitment to encouraging a
culture of enterprise, the
Enterprise Unit recently
announced the formation of the
Kent Enterprise Society, an
entrepreneurs’ club open to all
students, staff and alumni. The
Society will provide a sounding
board for business ideas,
mentoring, and much more. If
you have a business idea, want to
run your own company or take
over your family business, the
Enterprise Unit can help.
The Unit is putting together a
diary of events to include
innovation lectures, a business
start-up course module,
promotion of the HSBC annual
Business Enterprise Competition
and networking events. Ideas on
future events and activities are
welcome.
University of Kent shares
£ 1 / 4 million regional
start-up boost for 2004-05
Together with two other
universities in the South East
region (Brighton and Surrey) Kent
has been given a significant boost
in the form of a £ 1 / 4 million grant
from the South East England
Development Agency (SEEDA).
Great Ideas in Science and
Technology (GRIST) is a dynamic
new pilot enterprise scheme
funded by SEEDA and delivered
through the Universities of
Brighton, Kent and Surrey. The
scheme will offer entrepreneurs
with innovative ideas access to
financial support and practical
advice. Ed Metcalfe, Head of
Science, Technology, Enterprise &
Management (STEM) at SEEDA,
comments: ‘The GRIST project
offers candidates a real
opportunity to achieve their
creative ambitions, while providing
much-needed regeneration in
certain areas of the South East.’
The Enterprise Unit is a gateway
for businesses to access the
academic excellence that the
University has to offer, helping
organisations through joint
research projects, consultancy,
technology transfer, short courses
for business and seminars.
National business plan
competition prize
Enterprise at the University of
Kent recently took another move
forward with EigenFIT Limited, a
spin-out from the Forensic Imaging
Group in the University’s School
of Physical Sciences, winning
second prize in a national business
plan competition organised by the
UK Research Councils.
The competition was fierce, with
175 initial entries from across all
UK universities and dedicated
research laboratories. The
business plans were judged by an
expert panel of industrial,
academic and financial experts on
their potential to deliver
profitable businesses.
EigenFIT was established to
supply new software tools that
radically simplify the task of
photographic-quality facial
composite generation, enabling
victims of crimes to use this
front-line investigative tool. The
target market includes domestic
policing and Homeland Security
but will ultimately include facial
surgery planning and advertising.
Professor Mick Tuite and Professor Robert Freedman
Licensing deal with Delta Biotechnology Ltd
The University recently concluded negotiations with Delta
Biotechnology – one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the
UK – to allow licensing of technology for increasing the production of
disulphide-bonded recombinant proteins from the baker’s yeast,
Saccharomyces cerevisia. The technology, covered by the University’s
patent process, enables genes to be expressed in baker’s yeast to
create foreign, including human, proteins. Human protein creation has
been used to produce insulin (for treatment of diabetes), growth
hormones, and interferon (used in the fight against some cancers).
Professor of Molecular Biology Mick Tuite and Professor of
Biochemistry Robert Freedman (now at Warwick) were approached
by Merck & Co in the late 1980s with a view to working together. The
collaboration was borne out of Professor Tuite’s expertise in yeast
genetics and the protein-folding expertise of Professor Freedman.
The key to the patented technology is the over expression of the
folding enzyme protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) to allow a higher
yield of correctly folded proteins. Under the University’s Intellectual
Property Policy, a large share of the income received by the University
under this deal goes to the inventors, with the balance of the revenue
being allocated to the Department.
Chris Solomon, founder and
Technical Director of EigenFIT, and
Senior Lecturer in the School of
Physical Sciences at Kent, said, ‘We
have been developing these
systems for some time, in
collaboration with our primary
target market, the UK police
force, and have secured two DTI
Smart awards along the way. This
award gives us confidence that our
business plan embraces our future
project developments
and that our strategy
for entering the
market is robust – the
£10,000 is also very
welcome.’
Lord Sainsbury, Science
and Innovation Minister,
presents the award to Dr
Chris Solomon
11
Photo: Robert Berry

Families and children
Children and the issues around
them are the subject of much
academic work at Kent, and as
a research area, cross faculty and
department boundaries. Topics
range from the care of children
with disabilities, to prejudice in
children, to the costs and
practicalities of care and
approaches to autism and
dyspraxia. Following is a tiny
sample of ongoing work on
children-related subjects at Kent.
Sociology: working children
What jobs do children perform in ethnic
businesses and on behalf of their parents?
How do they understand and experience their
labour? In her book, Helping Out, by Dr Miri
Song, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Kent,
addressed the centrality of children’s labour
participation in various family-based ethnic
enterprises. Discussing the case of Chinese
families running take-away food businesses in
Britain, Dr Song examined how children
contribute their labour and the context in
which they come to believe in ‘helping out’ as
part of a ‘family – work contract.’ Many young
people, such as Anna, are aware of their
importance to the viability of the business:
‘You knew your parents depended upon you.
Half the reason they were pleased to have kids
was that they needed them to maintain the
business, and their lives got easier as you grew
older and took on more responsibility. I just
feel that my
mum and dad
could never
have had a
shop of their
own and not
had children.’
12
Studies about
ethnic
businesses –
which usually
concentrate on
their relevance
to immigrant adaptation – have rarely
examined the work roles, family dynamics,
attitudes, and experiences of the people
involved. Song explored the implications of
these children’s labour for family relationships,
the formation of cultural identity, and the future
of the Chinese community in Britain. She
argues that the practical importance and
broader meanings of children’s work must be
understood in the context of immigrant
families’ experiences of immigration, social and
economic marginality, and racism in Western,
white – majority societies.
Paranoid parenting
Dr Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology, has
written numerous articles in the popular press
on childcare, and his book, Paranoid Parenting,
has been widely
acclaimed by
parents and
childcare
professionals.
Hardly a day
goes by without
parents being
warned of a
new danger to
their children’s
wellbeing. Highprofile
campaigns
convince us that our children’s health, safety
and development are constantly at risk. It is
hardly surprising that parents become
paranoid, afraid to let their children out of
their sight. Even then, they are criticised by
one childcare expert or another. It seems that
parents can do nothing right. Parents do not
know whom they can trust, but one thing is
made clear to them – they cannot trust their
own judgement. Paranoid Parenting investigates
contemporary parental anxieties and suggests
that these fears are themselves the most
damaging influence upon children in modern
society. Children are actually physically safer
than they have ever been before and perhaps
more in danger from the conflicting advice
handed out to parents by different
generations of ‘childcare experts’. Frank
Furedi explains why parents feel paranoid and
looks at how they can deal with the insecurity
that is fostered by experts and the media. He
goes on to give examples and build a case for
parents relying more on their own judgement
and circumstances.
Psychology: how kids decide who’s in
the ‘In Crowd’
Researchers have long known that children
often dislike non-conformists. As they get
older, however, they learn to judge others as
individuals. Psychologists at Kent conducted a
study to test that theory. Professor Dominic
Abrams, Dr Adam Rutland and colleagues
questioned 476 English children, aged 5 to 11,
in the run up to the 2002 World Cup finals.
Professor Abrams: ‘We first asked them how
they felt about the English and German teams.
Not surprisingly, children of all ages showed a
strong preference for the English team.
‘Then we introduced two imaginary figures,
Alex and Mark. Alex was either an Englishman
who supported England or a German who
supported Germany. The children considered
Alex normal. Mark was introduced as either a
British or a German person who would cheer
for either team when they played well. The
children judged Mark ‘different’. Children as
young as five can understand the idea of loyalty,
at least as far as it deals with sports teams.
‘As they get older, children become more
sensitive to the attitudes of their own and
other groups. English children who strongly
support their own team may harshly judge an
English fan who recognizes the strengths of
both their own and an opposing team.
However, they may accept a similarly openminded
individual who belongs to an opposing
group. This implies that while children continue
to exhibit prejudice as they age, that prejudice

ecomes more subtle, sophisticated, and aimed
at particular individuals.’
This work is one of a number of projects at
Kent that are looking into the development of
prejudice in children and at possible
interventions to reduce it. The research is
funded by the British Academy and the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Tizard Centre: autism
Numerous studies have reported the benefits
of providing intensive early intervention for
young children with autism, including significant
acceleration of developmental and language
gains, improved social behaviour and
decreased symptoms of autism. One of the
most effective programmes showed an
experimental group to be significantly higher in
IQ and educational placement than controls,
and maintaining treatment gains several years
later. Replicating this success, particularly in
community-based settings, however, has
proved difficult, and further research is needed
to evaluate treatment outcomes.
With support from the British Academy and
the National Autistic Society, Dr Beadle-Brown
(with Professor Glynis Murphy and Hannah
Dorey) has been evaluating two treatment
programmes. The progress of children
undergoing interventions using Applied
Behaviour Analysis based on Lovaas
methodology is being compared to those in the
Son-Rise Options programme, an attitudinal
and educational intervention using intensive 1:1
home-based therapy. The study has also
explored parenting characteristics that may
influence choice of intervention. Results from
this pilot study will inform a larger research
project next year that will help give carers of
children with autism the information they need
to choose the most effective treatment.
Electronics Department: children
with dyspraxia
Dr Richard Guest and Professor Mike Fairhurst
are working on a new technique for assessing
children with developmental dyspraxia.
Together with researchers at the University of
Rouen, France, they are using computer analysis
to assess the outcome of writing and drawing
exercises. These exercises are employed to
gauge the nature and severity of medical
conditions affecting neurological functioning.
The Image Processing and Vision Group at
Kent have led the way in developing
computer-based analysis of such exercises and
have been involved in collaborative projects
with local clinicians for many years. The
exercises require patients to copy geometric
figures or complete other simple drawing or
observational tasks. According to Professor
Fairhurst: ‘Computer-based assessment of the
tests not only improves the efficiency of
testing, but also helps to extract information
that is simply not available with conventional
testing. This is because the computer can
analyse not only the final image, but can also
monitor how the drawing was executed,
making available information about the
dynamics of the drawing process’.
The EU-funded project will allow the research
team to further develop this work. Their aim is
to analyse the effectiveness of the basic feature
extraction techniques and identify more clearly
which of those are useful across a wide range
of clinical conditions and which are conditionspecific.
The complementary skills of the UK
and French partners will also benefit from the
close involvement of clinical staff in both
countries.
Social Policy: should foster carers be
paid?
Lecturer Dr Derek Kirton (K72) has carried
out extensive research (some in conjunction
with Dr Jennifer Beecham of the Personal
Social Services Research Unit) into the ways
in which foster carers are paid and the impact
this has on the state child care system.
Foster care now provides for roughly two
thirds of children 'in care' and is therefore
central to their experiences and well-being.
The payment of foster carers has long been a
controversial area, not least because of
suspicions that where there is payment, this
may attract carers who are 'only doing it for
the money'. However, the level of payment
given has steadily moved beyond simply
covering the costs associated with looking after
children to ideas that the carers are engaged in
'work' and should be rewarded
accordingly. This is partly a matter of rising
expectations placed upon carers, who may be
working with the children's parents, writing
reports or giving evidence in court, but also
reflects a world in which most women (married
as well as single) work and are less available for
unpaid care work than in bygone days.
The research has attempted to look at how
'love and money', 'family' and 'work' interrelate
in foster care. For policy purposes, the research
has also considered the ways that payment
influences the recruitment and retention of
carers, and how it contributes to carers feeling
valued and supported in their work. The
picture that emerges is one where payment is
increasingly important in foster care, but that
carers are equally, if not more, concerned
about the help they receive from social
workers, schools and counselling services.
11 13

The University in its region
VICE-CHANCELLOR PROFESSOR DAVID MELVILLE
The first foundations for the University of Kent at Canterbury were laid in 1965 on the hill overlooking the
city. At that point the University had an anticipated student population of 2,000. Since then it has grown in
size to over 13,000 students and the Canterbury campus has become a thriving, dynamic community which is
continually growing, not only physically in its new structures, but in its programmes and initiatives such as the
Canterbury Enterprise Hub.
The partnerships in the Medway, first
established in 2000, have resulted in plans for
our major joint campus in Chatham, and
exciting new developments such as the
Medway School of Pharmacy, created jointly
with the University of Greenwich. There is
also a new partnership with West Kent
College in Tonbridge, and lifelong learning
programmes are delivered in 25 different
towns across the county. This increasing
regional and Euro-wide mission led us to a
formal change of name to The University of
Kent, on 1 April 2003. These developments
reflect the aims articulated in the University’s
mission statement, not only to be ‘an
intellectual and cultural focus for Canterbury
and Kent’ but also to ‘support national and
regional economic success’.
We are indeed the University of Kent: at
Canterbury; at Medway; at Tonbridge; at
Brussels as well as throughout our region and
Euroregion.
Our unique geographical location gives us the
opportunity to break new ground through our
Brussels centre and European partnerships, as
exemplified by the pioneering agreement to
set up the University of the Transmanche. This
was recognised at the highest level in February
2003, when it was part of the communiqué
14
agreed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and
President Jacques Chirac at the Anglo-French
summit in Le Touquet.
Government proposals for an increase in
tuition fees mean that there will be a
corresponding increase in students choosing to
study near their homes. Within our city,
county and Euroregion, higher education
institutions must collaborate ever more closely
to ensure a comprehensive educational
provision to meet the needs and demands of
the region’s population. To do this we must
play to our own strengths while at the same
time focusing on the needs of the community
and its students, exploring what will benefit
and support them. This benefit is both
personal and economic. The latter is
exemplified by the considerable financial
support from government regeneration and
LEA sources for our new campus in Medway.
The mission of the University of Kent is clear.
We are a University with a national and
international reputation for the quality of our
teaching and research. At the same time, we
are firmly rooted by our responsibilities to our
region, working in partnership and
collaboration.
Canterbury
New buildings on the Canterbury campus
include the north-east wing of Cornwallis,
housing the School of Social Policy, Sociology
and Social Research; the refurbishment of the
Sports Centre’s reception area; the Registry
extension; new student accommodation in
Tyler Court and planning permission for new
student accommodation in Park Wood. Other
new developments include a £250,000 grant
to establish a Canterbury Enterprise Hub in
conjunction with Canterbury City Council, and
more than £7m government funding given for
refurbishing teaching infrastructure.
Medway
The final contribution to the £50m funding
package developed to establish the
University’s new campus at Chatham Maritime
was put in place in July. The project creates a
‘multiversity’ – a co-operating alliance of
higher and further education aimed at
developing education, skills and training in
Medway with a target of 6,000 students by
2007. This includes students from the new
Medway School of Pharmacy, a joint venture
between Kent and the University of
Greenwich, which received substantial funding
from Pfizer for the Head of School.
Tonbridge
The University was awarded one of the
highest percentage increases in government
funding in the country – 10% of all of
England’s university expansion will take place in
Kent. The University offers courses at 25
centres across the county, and last year
launched a new partnership with West Kent
College in Tonbridge. A further development
was the establishment of the Kent New
Technology Institute, a consortium of higher
and further education institutions and regional
development bodies, aiming to increase highlevel
skills in information and communication
technologies.

Brussels and the Euroregion
In February 2003, Kent hit the national
headlines when Prime Minister Tony Blair and
French President Jacques Chirac signed an
education accord agreeing the establishment of
the University of the Transmanche. The accord
was signed at the Anglo-French summit at Le
Touquet. The University of the Transmanche is
a groundbreaking project developed by the
University of Kent together with the three Lille
Universities and the University of the Littoral.
The first students were recruited to the pilot
programme: a joint BA and Diplôme in Politics,
Philosophy and Economics. Kent’s already wellestablished
Brussels School of International
Studies continued to expand and introduce
new programmes.
Some of the first students on a pilot of the Transmanche
programme with Professor Richard Sakwa, Head of
Politics and International Relations at Kent
Photo: Martin Goodwin
15

Alumni life
Events and Tourism Officer CLAIRE SALLEY R00
Kent is one of Britain’s top universities in graduate employment. For several years now, its rate of
graduate unemployment has been around 3 per cent or less. Claire Salley, who graduated in 2003
with a BA in History and Heritage Studies, did a placement at Belmont Park, an elegant Georgian
manor in the heart of Kent, and last summer worked at Buckingham Palace.
Photo: David Ormrod
Claire Salley in Buckingham Palace Gardens
What I most enjoyed and did
best in GCSE and A-level history
studies were the ‘hands on’
elements, which involved visiting
and reporting on key sites such
as Gressenhall Rural Life Museum
and Castle Acre Priory in
Norfolk. Kent was the obvious
choice of University for me,
because it offered practical
experience in the form of a finalyear
placement and it focused on
the heritage industry as a whole
– not just museums or galleries,
for example. Also, the course is
flexible – permitting relevant
modules from other
departments, so I could tailor the
degree to my own goals. With
my interest in built heritage, I
focused on architectural history
and decorative art.
I based my final-year dissertation
on Belmont House. My main task
was to produce an educational
and entertaining script for an
audio guide to the estate. This
was part of a wider initiative to
attract more visitors and increase
income. Belmont House is
fabulous – a fine example of the
work of progressive neo-classicist
Samuel Wyatt, with a unique
imperial family history, and it
houses the most superb
horological collection in the
country.
During the autumn term, I
interviewed as many people
involved with the property as I
could, as well as horological
expert Jonathan Betts. I visited
Maidstone and Canterbury
county archives, and was given
access to the oral history of the
5 th Lord Harris of Belmont
House.
My audio guide project is now in
the hands of the Trustees of
Belmont, where plans are to
record the script and make this
available in a CD format until it
can be produced digitally. They
are hoping to translate this to
make the property more
accessible to the many foreign
visitors they get every season.
As a warden during the Summer
Opening of Buckingham Palace in
2003, my Belmont House
experience, as well as my degree,
proved invaluable. I needed
sufficient knowledge of the Royal
Collection, the history of the
building and the Royal Family to
be able to inform a multicultural
audience and answer their
questions about these and
related subjects. I was mostly in
the magnificent State Rooms and
the special display to mark the
50 th anniversary of the Queen’s
Coronation, where the exquisite
Coronation Dress and Robes
and the wonderful Topolski frieze
were shown. Over 300,000
people visited Buckingham Palace
that season.
I now work for the Wayland
Partnership, a regeneration
charity based in my home county
of Norfolk. My first major work
has been to complete the
Church Tours project, funded
largely by the Local Heritage
Initiative. So far, this has involved
organising live monthly tours,
editing and promoting the
guidebook and – you guessed it
– managing the production of an
audio guide! I’m also developing
special-interest breaks, large
regional events and training
opportunities for volunteers. The
role has given me excellent
experience and the chance to
develop networks with such
large cultural organisations as
Creative Arts East and Common
Ground.
The heritage industry has not
been an easy one to break into,
but it has been worth every
effort to do so!
16

Stage right
JAMIE BEDDARD K85
A career in theatre and the arts seemed
totally unfeasible when I was growing up.
There were no role models and few, if any,
positive representations of disability in the
media. The idea of breaking through the
misconceptions and barriers to become a
performer seemed almost impossible.
Following school, and a year travelling, I
studied sociology at Kent. My limited
academic pretensions were soon dashed as I
indulged in late nights, cheap ales, and idle
pleasure. More by luck than judgement, I
gained a mediocre degree, and returned to
London to set about earning an honest living.
As a youth worker, I pitted my wits against the
young people of northwest London. My
standoff with the disaffected young was
broken by a call from the BBC. They were
casting Skalligrigg – a ‘groundbreaking film on
disability’ and in the absence of trained actors
with cerebral palsy, had stumbled across my
name. With no previous acting experience or
aspirations, and much truth bending, I
managed to blag a role. The wayward young
of Kilburn were ditched in favour of
greasepaint, pink gin and professional
pretence!
A couple of years ago, I applied under an Arts
Council Bursary Scheme to work as assistant
director. I had run many workshops and had
always been interested in directing. Working
for Graeae in this new role offered new
insights. As an actor your focus is on
performance – learning lines and characters,
preparing for shows, and fighting nerves – and
you are largely unaware of the work that goes
on behind the scenes.
One of my main areas of responsibility as
associate director is to work with emerging
and established writers. As a writer myself, I
understand the challenges of deadlines and
finding inspiration. There is, however, a
reservoir of emerging talent among writers
with disabilities. Nurturing these voices is
becoming as integral to Graeae’s work as its
traditional support for performers.
We also provide the ‘Missing Piece’ training
course with London Metropolitan University.
Starting again in September, this is an intensive
eight-month training course for disabled
people in Performing Arts, and has over the
last four years generated a wealth of talent.
I’m fortunate to be doing a job I enjoy, at a
time when the representation of disability is
evolving and the negative stereotypes of the
past are becoming obsolete. A pool of great
disabled performers now exists, and the
industry can’t afford to ignore them.
May the show begin! See: www.bbc.co.uk/ouch
After Skalligrigg, I contacted Graeae Theatre.
The company offered a completely new
world that I found exciting, challenging and
sociable. I attended various workshops and,
inspired by many of the arts practitioners
associated with it, tentatively decided on a
career as an actor. I switched to the
professional touring company and as a
freelancer was involved in various Graeae
productions, including Ubu, Flesh Fly and
Fittings – the Last Freakshow.
One of the main advantages of working for a
company such as Graeae is that disability is
not really an issue; most of the barriers of
understanding and access have already been
dismantled. Also, disabled people share many
cultural connections, and Graeae is at the
forefront with these.
'As a student, Jamie tackled everything with enthusiasm and resilience. I knew he had become an actor, but hadn't
realised he was also a playwright and director. While at Kent he encouraged others to be positive about disability. It's
clear he is still very much doing that!'
- Michael Fuller, Senior Lecturer in Econometrics and Social Statistics
This article was adapted from a piece in Disability Now.
17

Grownup gap year JOANNA GRIFFITHS K82
Swearing in a primary school
is not, perhaps, what one
might expect of a civil
servant, but I was chasing a
life-size inflatable whale
across a windswept muddy
playing field in the pouring
rain! Luckily, the children
were out of earshot.
everyone’s relatives – usually all
30 of the extended family.
Sticking to what had become the
theme of ‘find a place completely
different from the last’, I headed
to Peru – up to 15,000 feet in the
Andes, to the mysterious Machu
Picchu, and down the Amazon
to the rainforest. I saw condors
close up, lots of llamas and a
brace of tarantulas.
Top: Jo with children at village school in
Ghana
I’d decided to take a year off to
travel and volunteer around the
world. The Hebridean Whale
and Dolphin Trust on the Isle of
Mull was my first stop.
Pursuing a runaway whale was
nothing compared to the trip to
the school. We’d travelled from
one end of the island to the
other on the charity’s boat, a
floating cetacean classroom. It
was raining and windy. Staying
below was impossible. I spent five
numbing hours on the deck,
grimly hanging on, chilled to the
bone. Needless to say, for the
Mud baths in Rotorua, New Zealand
remainder of my volunteering,
I was land-based. Mull’s scenery
is breathtaking, and I saw golden
eagles, otters and seals but, alas,
no whales.
‘Do you sit or squat?’ my fellow
volunteer Charlotte was asked.
We’d heard that the Ghanaians
were more open about toilet
habits than the British. But this
question, from the Headmistress
of the school where we were
based, was unexpected. She then
delivered a lecture on the relative
merits of the two styles.
I was volunteering at a village
school just outside the capital,
Accra. There was little by way of
resources and the standard of
teaching was poor, but the children
seemed happy. Charlotte and I
were classroom assistants. Simple
games and songs such as ‘the
Hokey cokey’ caused endless
amusement, but our tour de force
was the ‘Britain’ class. We’d
decided to teach the children
about our country and culture.
Our resources were limited, but,
armed with jumpers and photos
of snow, we tried to describe
winter. A raid on an expat
supermarket yielded the typical
British diet of cream crackers,
Weetabix and Marmite, which
the children curiously dismissed
in favour of jelly – an unknown
treat. There was much hilarity as
it wobbled out of the children’s
grasp.
For our finale, Charlotte
produced her recorder while I
performed some Scottish country
dancing, dimly remembered from
lessons 30 years ago. I think we
convinced the children that the
British are completely mad.
Ghana was a complete onslaught
on the senses. Noise was
everywhere, from goats and
chickens to the constant ‘Acc-ra,
Acc-ra’ from the ‘trotros’
(minibuses) plying for custom.
Women in brightly coloured
dresses carried everything from
a sewing machine to a basket of
live chickens on their heads. I was
everywhere accompanied by
cries of ‘Obroni, obroni!’ – (white
person). And I was introduced to
As the garland of welcome was
placed over my head at the
airport, I had a feeling that
Rarotonga (Cook Islands) was
going to be good. In fact, it was
stunning: lush, green, white
beaches, turquoise sea and
flowers everywhere – even the
bus drivers’ uniform included a
garland.
In Auckland I met up with
Maurice Slingerland (R80). We
hadn’t seen each other for 18
years. Making my way from
North Island to South Island, I
saw everything from the art
deco gem Napier to bubbling
thermal mud and geysers in
Rotorua, to magnificent snowcapped
mountains on the famous
alpine train route from
Christchurch. I finally saw my
whales in Kaikoura. Everywhere I
went I was congratulated on the
Rugby World Cup but I think
that this had more to do with
Australia’s defeat than England’s
prowess.
I am now in the final couple of
months of my career break.
Exotic destinations have given
way to the unattractive prospect
of finding a job…
Joanna Griffiths was a civil servant,
and most recently worked for the
Cabinet Office in Brussels.
18

Letter from
Madrid
JONATHAN RAY K82
PA Photos
DEATH IN THE MORNING
We arrived at Atocha station in Madrid
at 7.25 am, groggy and hungover from a
night on the town. I was accompanying
a party of British chefs from restaurants
such as Nobu and Le Manoir aux Quat’
Saisons on a culinary visit to Spain.
Including our hosts and PR representatives, we
numbered 17, one of whom was running late.
We made our way downstairs to the level
above the platforms and hung around
grumbling about the early start. Eventually the
latecomer joined us.
Due to catch the 8am express to Seville, we
now had about 20 minutes in which to grab
a coffee and lug our suitcases downstairs. But
for our latecomer, we would already have
been on the platform.
until we were outside that we began to grasp
the enormity of what had happened.
Ambulances, police cars and fire engines
thronged the road as officers put up security
tapes. Frustrated travellers packed away their
mobiles and walked smartly in the direction
indicated. There seemed to be no panic,
rather a sense of resignation.
Then there was a shout, and instantly the
crowd ran, as one, away from the station. An
elderly lady with no shoes and her trousers in
rags, blood pouring from a gash over her
eyebrow, was being helped by a young man.
She looked remarkably unconcerned. Behind
me a woman was in tears, shrieking into her
mobile, while beside her a young bloodspattered
couple ran with their arms around
each other. I was carrying two bags and was
walking at the back rather than running, partly
7.39am
because as a journalist I thought I ought to
At 7.39 am there was an enormous ‘carrump,’
followed by a slight aftershock. One of our
party muttered half to himself, ‘that sounded
like a bomb,’ but nobody seemed too
concerned. Not thinking, two of us strolled
closer to the windows overlooking the tracks
for a better look. Two more smaller ‘carrumps’
and we still didn’t take in what was happening.
I went to get a newspaper.
Suddenly a couple of policemen dashed past
us, and the newsvendor grabbed the paper in
my hand with a cry and slammed down his
shutter. Moments later a young lad was
brought up the stairs by an officer who was
gripping his arm. He was holding his head with
his free hand and I thought that he had been
arrested, but as he turned I saw that his left
ear and neck were gushing with blood.
Gradually it dawned on me that things didn’t
look too good.
No alarms or sirens went off in the station, but
a policewoman shouted at us to evacuate. This
everyone did at a leisurely pace and it wasn’t
University students from the southern Spanish city of Jerez placed 190 white masks on Friday, 26
March 2004, at a makeshift shrine in the Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, in memory of those
killed in the series of terrroist bombings on packed communter trains on 11 March. Two of the four
trains attacked that day were arriving at Atocha when the bombs exploded. The students used their
own faces to mold the masks.
hang around, and partly because an army
friend of mine had once told me that
secondary bombs were often planted in the
path of a fleeing crowd.
11 March
Amazingly in this crush of many hundreds,
our party managed to find a quiet corner and
regrouped. We were all talking at once and
shaking from the adrenalin. Most of us were
calm, although some were pale and unsteady.
One of the chefs in particular was very
wobbly.
2004
Seville. Reports of what had happened began
We decided to split into small groups and go
to the airport, determined still to get to
to filter through. Some thought a train had
overshot the station; others that there had
been a gas explosion, but most were
convinced it was a bomb. Five people were
declared dead. No 2, no 15, 40, 100. The
number kept rising. I called my wife in England.
‘I’m sorry, darling,’ she said, ‘ the baby’s crying.
I’ll have to call you back.’ An hour later she did
so and, having now seen the BBC news, she
was worried.
At the airport we found that flights to Seville
were fully booked, and were put on a waiting
list. Within the hour, though, we were
allocated seats on the first flight, several of the
expected passengers no doubt having
perished or been injured by the bombs. To
our consternation, there was little evidence of
security at the airport. When I went through
the X-ray machine the ping went off, and
when I pointed to my mobile, the guard
waved me through with a grin. We arrived in
Seville a little after midday and watched as
several passengers were greeted by weeping
relatives.
During a two-hour bus ride through the
Andalusian countryside, we gleaned more
about the morning’s events from calls on our
mobiles, and delayed shock began to set in.
But later, as we stood in a lush green meadow
while a farmer drove his pedigree Iberian pigs
towards us, some of us wondered whether
the sickening events of the morning had really
happened. We felt far removed from the
horrors of Madrid.
The day took on an even more surreal hue as
the farmer’s young son, Pedro, picked up one
of the smallest piglets and handed it to one of
our chefs. He cradled the little chap in his
arms and turned to us with tears in his eyes
but laughter in his voice, saying, ‘Hey, guys, this
is life’, before reluctantly passing the piglet on.
Each of us in turn demanded to have our
photograph taken with it.
This article was adapted from the original
published in The Spectator.
19

Who’s what where from Kent?
A monthly updated, multi-indexed 3W is now up at www.kent.ac.uk/alumni
Please use the Alumni questionnaire you will find there to send us your next 3W message.
These constitute a small selection of the entries received for
3W since November, when the last Kent Bulletin was published.
The complete listing of 3Ws for the year is on the Web (the
URL is opposite). To send us a 3W entry, please use the Alumni
questionnaire on the Web. If you would like email addresses for
people in 3W below, please email alumni-office@kent.ac.uk. We
may be able to help put you in touch.
KEY: D: Darwin, E: Eliot, K: Keynes,
R: Rutherford; T or M: Information
Technology (including Maths), N: Natural
Sciences, A: Science, Technology and
Medical Studies, H: Humanities, S: Social
Sciences, U: Foundation year or Short-term
studies. The location at the end of your
entry is from your mailing address – if it’s in
parentheses, we think you’re not actually
living there but use it for Kent mail. Year:
We place you under your year of entry to
Kent, not exit and if you were here for
more than one course of study, we try to
put you in your first entry year – please let
us know if corrections are needed!
1965
PLATT, John RS: Retired after 34 years in
the RAF and taking a gap year (or years!)
while I decide if I really need another job!
In the meantime, 4 classic cars,
archaeological excavation and trying to
trace my family history back before 1750
(in Kings Lynn) keeps me pretty occupied.
East Sussex. (15/10/2003)
1967
STAPENHURST, Rick KS: Still working at
the World Bank in Africa and Asia.
Daughter Sarah graduated with MBA and
now living in Canada. Son Tim is studying
to be a paramedic. Washington DC, USA.
(05/02/2004)
1969
BRISTOW, Stephen RS: I left Shrewsbury
College of Arts in 2002 to set up my own
consultancy company, Open Direction Ltd.
My current work is for the Welsh
Assembly Government and the Welsh
Development Agency. Best wishes for
2004. Staffordshire. (05/01/2004)
GOULD, Mike EH66: I have
recently published my first book,
a verse translation of two Greek
plays, Medea & Alcestis in a series
entitled Wave Crest Classics,
named after my address in
Whitstable. I hope in due course
to translate the work of all the
Greek tragedians in a style suited
to both stage and study and for
use at GCSE, Advanced and
Degree level. So far sales have
been modest, but the big
breakthrough is hourly expected.
Kent. (19/02/2004)
1970
GOLD, Nicholas RS: While investment
banking at Barings is still the day job, I seem
to spend a fair amount of time also at (a)
RADA where I now sit on the Governing
Council and chair the Finance & General
Purposes Committee and (b) the Prince of
Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health,
where I again chair the Finance Committee
and sit on the Board. By way of
entertainment my beach cafe in Salcombe,
Devon, the `Winking Prawn’ is flourishing. I
also spent a glorious month last summer
drawing at the Charles Cecil Studio in
Florence. London. (18/02/2004)
KIRBY-HARRIS, Bob RS: PhD Higher
Education Research (Lancaster). I am now
Director of Operations at the Royal
Botanical Gardens in Kew. After 8 marvellous
years in Namibia, I am acclimatising to the
UK! (Cornwall). (05/01/2004)
1971
GLYNOS, Tony KS: Made redundant from
The British Library last July. Now selfemployed
in PC repair and working
towards building up the business.
Bedfordshire. (07/01/2004)
VAN TINTEREN, Jenny KH: I joined the
Civil Service after I left Kent, first in
Oxford, later in London and now Sheffield.
I had expected this sort of job to be
boring, but it has been exactly the
opposite! I am currently in Minneapolis as
this year’s UK Civil Service Fulbright
Humphrey scholar, doing research at the
University of Minnesota into computer
technology for people with disabilities. Two
sons. I would love to hear from old friends.
South Yorkshire. (04/11/2003)
DINO,Dini, a Kent graduate and one of the
few British computer games developers to
have his name celebrated in a games title,
returned to the University’s Canterbury
campus to give a lecture to Multimedia
Technology and Design students. Dino
studied for a BSc in Computer Science from
1982-1986.
He described how he had written and sold
his first game at the age of 14, and went on
to develop Kick Off, Kick Off 2,
Player/Manager and Dino Dini’s Soccer, and
is now a consultant to other developers,
with his company Abundant Software.
Dino said he was amazed that games
development had, in his 24 years in the
business, grown from the work of a lone
coder to an operation not unlike making a
feature film, involving perhaps 200 people
and costing $20 million in the case of the recent Playstation 2 game, ‘Enter the Matrix’. He
believes that in the future there will be an increasing number of games based on brands and
licenses, such as James Bond films, or Lord of the Rings, and that the trend toward on-line
gaming with a service fee will grow.
1973
COLE, Mark EN: By careful application of
saying `yes’ to every question I seem to
have arrived in an old trailer near the
monument to Ernesto Che Guevara in
Cuba, working for a Canadian company as
the one Brit in a mass of locals prospecting
for oil. I am not sure if this was the plan on
leaving KENT or if there was a career
structure involved but it is slightly more
interesting than commuting from Guildford
for 5 days a week. As the big 50 gets
nearer maybe it is time for a change of
pace. Surrey. (17/12/2003)
MORGAN, Shan DH: Moved to Brussels
in 01 after 4 years in Paris. Working at the
Permanent Representation to the
European Community. Contact me at:
Shan.Morgan@Belgacom.net. Brussels,
Belgium. (21/12/2003)
1974
BLUNDY, Andrew ES: Now father to a 2yr
old mini Viking. Whoever said having
children makes no change to one’s life must
have been a Mothercare Rep! London.
(21/01/2004)
1976
MCCARTEN, Jane EH: Still working as an
Editor and Communications Manager for a
trade union. Living in London with fellow
journalist Paul Todd and making regular
visits to Italy. In touch with Carl Maxwell,
Kim Deignan E77, Adie Palka E75 and
others. London. (05/01/2004)
1977
KANE, Minneh KS: Masters (Harvard Law
School) after which I took up work at the
World Bank in Washington where I now
live. Married; 3 children. I travel to the UK
quite often and would love to see any of
my old friends from 77/81. Arlington, USA.
(05/11/2003)
NICHOL, Mark DN: Spent most of 16
years with Shell in Malaysia after graduating.
I left to start my own Agroforestry
business (forest plantations, tiger shrimp
farm) in ’97. Started a trading and specialist
service company in 2000 serving the oil
and gas industry in Malaysia. I now
commute between the Hague and Malaysia
as my wife is on posting to Shell HQ.
Would like to hear from old friends and
course mates: Robert – Nigeria, Chiu –
Hong Kong (best man at your wedding),
Nigel Crouch D77, Graham Jacks D77,
Mervyn Woods D77 and Claire Rymell
(née Morton) R77. Contact me at:
nanang@planet.nl. Netherlands.
(11/01/2004)
1978
WILLIAMSON, Ian RS: MBA (London
Business School). Married Mary (Fullam)
R80 in 88 after a 3-year stint based in
Frankfurt. Two children. Now head of
Relationship Management at investment
bank Nomura. Lots of travel to wild and
weird places. Still converting cottage in
Umbria when time and funds permit.
Regards to all who remember me. Suffolk.
(14/01/2004)
1980
MAHON, Bernard KH: Given up on the
Antarctic/Himalayan exploration business
to focus on my academic career, now that
income from my patents has dried up. Still
left wing, left brain and left field. I seem to
have drifted into success and happiness
without quite knowing how, but I am sure
that can be sorted out with a little bad
planning. Regards to all. County Kildare,
Irish Republic. (06/01/2004)
TROTTER, Toby ES: Now back in
Singapore after a year in Rome. Have
joined a start-up direct marketing company
which is doing very well and giving me
good business opportunities with major
companies in Asia. Managed to catch up
with Hugh Whittle K79 for the Rugby
World Cup in Perth and Pete Carter K79
in New Zealand. They are both drinking! ,
Singapore. (28/01/2004)
1981
BELLINGHAM, Chris KT: I moved to New
York in 88, bought a house on the
southern shore of Long Island in 95,
became a US citizen in 99 and married in
2000. I have worked as a software engineer
20

for Chase, NationsBank, Morgan Stanley
and now Tullett Liberty. I would love to
hear what happened to the rest of the
CS/CC class of 84. Find me at:
www.chrisbellingham.com. Lindenhurst,
USA. (21/01/2004)
MIASIK, Jan EN: After a varied career in
R&D and Management, I now work in the
Patent Office. I would like to hear from
anyone who remembers me, particularly
Josephine M Walshe K82. We lost touch
and I would love to contact her.
Unfortunately, I have been diagnosed with
motor neurone disease, but I hope to be
around for a while, so I hope to hear from
you. Rhondda Cynon Taf. (15/12/2003)
1982
ARAMAZ, Ismail KS: Currently working at
the Turkish Mission to NATO, Brussels.
Married; 2 children. Greyer, but not
necessarily wiser. I would be pleased to get
in touch with everyone who knew me at
KENT:aramaz@hotmail.com. Brussels.
(17/12/2003)
DAVIS, Paul KT: Having taken a break after
leaving the post of UK Technical Manager
for a major internet service provider, I
decided to fulfill a long-term dream of
taking a cookery course. This ended up
being the full Cordon Bleu diploma and I
am now running my own catering company
specialising in high-class private catering.
Suffolk. (27/01/2004)
1983
WISNIEWSKI, Chris RS: I am still taking a
break from the Law and working as a
Teaching Assistant in Primary education –
and really enjoying it. Berkshire. (05/01/2004)
1984
GARBA, Ali RS: Appointed Special Adviser
(Development Strategy) by His Excellency
Mr Peter Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti
State, South West Nigeria. A very unusual
development considering that I am from
Katsina State North Central of Nigeria. The
appointment has opened possibilities for
future political development of Nigeria as a
united country. Nigeria. (14/01/2004)
1985
CASIE CHETTY, Nicholas DS: 2004 is my
10th year as Headmaster of St Thomas’
Preparatory School, which is the first
preparatory school modelled on English
public school lines in Sri Lanka. The
decision to move into education from the
field of the Law has proved very rewarding.
Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka. (20/01/2004)
PROBERT, Laura KH: Have just bought a
house in Ramsgate. Very happy to be back
in Kent again. (14/01/2004)
1986
AYRES, John ET: Currently working as a
video journalist for the BBC in Torbay,
having spent a spell producing in the
Channel Islands. Still hoping for better days
for my football teams: Exeter City and
Windsor & Eton. Devon. (05/01/2004)
LE BIHAN, Paul KS: Left farming in July this
year. After running the business for some
time, I decided that it was time to get out
before I started losing money. So as I write I
am part way through my first set of
accounting studies in Southampton; basically
re-doing my degree in 9 weeks. Married; 2
sons all doing well and looking forward to
spending more time with me. Contact me
at: paullebihan@jerseymail.co.uk. Jersey.
(15/10/2003)
1987
BURGESS, James DT: I have lived near San
Francisco for 11 years, working at Pixar the
whole time making movies – go see Finding
Nemo soon. I am the director of
photoscience which means I build laser
printers and figure out colour problems for
film, video and digital projection. In August I
took a year off and moved back to London.
Lora has won an Atlantic Fellowship from
the UK Government to pay for her
research for the coming year, working out
of the University of London. While Lora
works I look after the children and try to
lose my atrocious West Coast/British
accent. Married Lora Bartlett E87; 3
children. London. (16/10/2003)
GRANT, Stephen EN: Partner at a hedge
fund in London. Happily married; one
daughter. I have not kept in touch, but
happy to hear from anyone from Kent who
still remembers me! Surrey. (17/12/2003)
BIRTLES, Lynn
KH84 and Duncan
have taken up
residence in a
French windmill, and
offer Chambres et
tables d'hotes to
Kent alumni at 10
percent discount.
See www.moulinepinay.com
France.
(February 2004)
'David Mitchell's DH87
new novel is hugely ambitious
and entertaining. Reviewing
Cloud Atlas in the Spectator,
Philip Hensher applauds
Mitchell's stylistic range and
confesses himself, at the same
time, bewildered. 'I still
couldn't say that I could
identify a page of prose as
Mitchell's.' His third book,
after number9dream and
Ghostwritten is his best yet.
Ghostwritten won the John
Llewelyn Rhys prize;
number9dream was shortlisted
for the Booker. Last year, he
was among the 20 best young
British novelists chosen by
Granta magazine.'
PARSLOW, Debbie KH: I am currently on
a career break from the civil service so I
can experience the joys of full-time
motherhood. Married to Adrian Parslow
K86 for 10 years; 2 children. I love being
part of the local community in Wiltshire,
particularly involved in carer and toddler
group. Our two children are all the more
precious as Adrian battled cancer and
underwent chemotherapy some years ago
and we were unsure if we would ever have
children. Who says real life cannot have a
happy ending? Wiltshire. (15/10/2003)
1988
GORDON, Andrew EH: I went into
publishing soon after graduation and am
currently looking after non-fiction at Simon
& Schuster UK, trying to find the next big
bestseller. Contact me there if you have
one! London. (16/10/2003)
HALLATT, Alex EN: I am still loving my
work as a cartoonist: my online portfolio is
at www.moontoon.com. Currently, I am
illustrating a series of children’s books
about odd socks, which have launched in
Harrods. I recently emigrated to Mount
Maunganui, New Zealand and am relishing
living minutes from a surf beach New
Zealand. (03/01/2004)
1990
KONRADSDOTTIR, Svanhildur KH: My
work since I left KENT has been in media,
culture and now tourism. I am the director
of Reykjavik Complete – a marketing and
events office for the City of Reykjavik. It is
nice to be back in touch. Hafnarfjordur,
Iceland. (20/10/2003)
1991
GRAHAM, Fiona DS: Studied at College of
Law in York after leaving KENT, then
worked in Japan and travelled for a couple
of years. Moved to London and after
working as a journalist for the Daily
Telegraph’s website for 3 years, I am now
a broadcast journalist for BBC
News Online. London.
(01/03/2004)
1992
BOOTHER, Karen DH: Now
working as a Property Solicitor
for Her Majesty the Queen in
London – a far cry from my
republican days at Kent! I still
think fondly of wandering
across campus in the rain,
gawping at the floodlit
Cathedral. I would love to hear
from anyone who remembers
me: twickers7@yahoo.co.uk.
Middlesex. (15/01/2004)
DOYLE, Nicola EH: Still
working and living in Hong Kong,
running a magazine and loving
Asia. Contact me at:
nickontheroad@yahoo.co.uk.
Central, Hong Kong.
(04/11/2003)
Photo: Martin Pope
COOPER, Craig
RS89 After leaving
University, I worked
for Whitbread and
Guineess for
several years, then
took a break to
travel. On
returning, I realised
I wanted to do
something on my
own, and after
about a year
researching ideas, my father, brother and I
bought a building and an existing furniture
business and in late 2002 started trading
as theduckcompany. Each unique duck is
hand carved from the root of bamboo
and individually named. We are looking to
move onto the continent – Anyone
interested in becoming a
distributor/partner in France?
(mail@theduckcompany.co.uk Website
www.theduckcompany.co.uk)
SHIMELLS, SHIMS, Si ES: After working for
a few years in corporate London, I resigned
from UK plc working life and have returned
to Yorkshire to start up my own charity
organisations; dealing with many things from
working in places like Albania and Sierra
Leone, to local recycling projects here in
Hull. Very busy but very happy about it. I
would love to make contact with all the
insane people I met in my years at KENT,
especially Claire/Lauren R from Texas, Lisa,
the Boys, the Bernards, the KENT Radio
crew, bar staff from the Works and
everyone else I met. Fascinated to find out
how your lives are coming along a decade
after we all first arrived in Kent. East
Yorkshire. (17/12/2003)
VILKUNA, Anna RH: I am the Director of
the VB Photographic Centre in Kuopio.
After graduation I worked in Finnish Art
Museums and consider myself an art
historian. I would love to hear from my
former house mates. Contact me at:
avilkuna@cc.jyu.fi. 40600 Jyvaskyla, Finland.
(16/10/2003)
FUKUTOME, Akira DN90: I have been plodding away as
a Consultant (of sorts) in Tokyo for the last 10 years.
Married Kayoko Kato E92, an exchange student whom I
met at KENT. Was plodding away with that one for a long
time too – with a little more success! Would love to hear
from old friends. Yokohama 223-053, Japan. (28/12/2003)
21

Who’s what where from Kent?
Pauline Dendy and Darius Wiles
(both ET91) were married in Mauritius
in September.
1993
LAMBERT, Guy EH: Now Producer for
Children’s BBC On-Air producing material
for BBC1, BBC2 and CBBC Channel. Feel
free to get in touch:
theguylambert@yahoo.co.uk. London.
(03/01/2004)
VAN OLST, Lorie ES: I am now a
programmer although I studied
Anthropology. Kent was one of the best
things I could have done and I still see former
Kent professors at our annual meeting which
is always a treat. I live and work in the
Washington DC area so if anyone is close by,
send me an email and we can have a coffee.
Virginia, USA. (15/10/2003)
1994
COLLARD, Adrian RH: After Kent I
worked for Young & Rubicam Advertising
in New York. I was only planning to stay in
the US for a few years. Six years later I am
still here and now work for MasterCard
International. Gimme a shout if you want
to touch base, contact me at:
adriancollard@aol.com. Jersey City, USA.
(14/01/2004)é
RHODES, Danny DH: Back in Canterbury,
working in Secondary Education and loving
the job. Still writing. Several publications on
the web and still trying for an agent and
print publisher. Contact me at:
danrhodesuk@yahoo.co.uk. Kent.
(22/01/2004)
1995
EL SADEK, Karim ES: I spent 2 years in
London as an Equity Researcher after
graduating from Kent. Then I was recruited
by Oriental Weavers Group to manage
expansion into the UK/France markets.
Cairo, Egypt. (30/12/2003)
SANCHEZ, Juan-Luis KH: Still in San
Francisco, toiling away for George Lucas on
Star Wars Episode III. Just bought a house
here and all’s well. Always happy to hear
from old friends, and even better, receive
visitors, so get in touch at:
juan_luis_sanchez_miguel@yahoo.com. San
Rafael, USA. (18/02/2004)
1996
LIASKA, Eleni RS: I have been working at
the Embassy of Israel in Athens for 4 years,
dealing with cultural and educational issues,
enjoying every minute of it. It is a great city
to live in, although quite crazy at times! I
hope everyone from my ICA class is doing
OK, I would love to hear from you guys.
Contact me at: lliaska@hotmail.com. 115-
27 Athens, Greece. (15/10/2003)
SUNDARAM, Vanita DS: Visiting PhD
student at the Centre for Women’s
Studies, University of York. Otherwise still
employed at the National Institute of Public
Health in Copenhagen. Living with Aki
Pallikaras D97. Email me at:
vs133@york.ac.uk (until June 04). Yorkshire.
(20/01/2004)
1997
PAGE, Jo DH: After graduating I did one
year of a BSc (Hons) degree in Nursing but
found it boring. Left to go back to working
part-time in Canterbury and following
promotion in 2003 I am now on the
Management team of a specialised home
for people with dementia. Kent.
(19/01/2004)
1998
CHATUR, Shazeen DS: I am in Kenya
working as a lawyer which is great fun. Do
keep in touch, contact me at:
shaz_chatur@hotmail.com. Kisumu, Kenya.
(04/11/2003)
GOOM, Russell DH: Now living and
working in Cambridge as a database
developer with no small thanks to the
KENT Jobshop! Looking forward to
marrying Anna Kotowska D97 later this
year. Cambridgeshire. (19/01/2004)
1999
COSTIGAN, Chris ES: Student barrister.
Recently triumphed, with a colleague, in
a case against a landlord’s proposed
service charges, saving the group of
leaseholders over £100K in charges and
landlord’s legal costs. Article appears in
Lawyer 2B, October 03. Hertfordshire.
(27/10/2003)
JONES, Abigail EH: After graduating I
worked at Sotheby’s and the National
Portrait Gallery before being offered a
position as Archive Assistant at the Royal
National Theatre in London. Somerset.
(07/01/2004)
MOORE, Robin ES: Doing a Postdoc on
gopher tortoises at the University of South
Florida. As I get older the animals I study
tend to become slower. I started last
August and plan to stick around for at least
a couple of years. Contact me at:
robingecko@yahoo.co.uk. USA.
(01/03/2004)
2000
SHEPHERD, Geoffrey KH: The last time I
was at University, as a student, was 55
years ago just after the war. All students
from the services had a grant and I
managed easily on £400 a year. I have
been very happy at Kent and found people
cheerful and kind. It is also good to have
had the company of my grandson who is
also a student here. Kent. (19/12/2003)
2001
DAVILA, Mauricio ES: Working in the Law
Department of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
I will keep you posted. Guys, I miss each
and all of you so get in touch at:
duvilia@hotmail.com. La Paz, Bolivia.
(15/12/2003)
Deaths
Since the publication of the autumn
Bulletin, sadly we have learned of the
deaths of a number of former Kent
students. If you would like to be put in
touch with the families, please let us
know. We may be able to help.
John P Smith R65 died recently.
Geoffrey Bridges E66 died on 21
December. We were notified recently
that William B Taylor had died on 5
March 1999. John R (Rich) Davidson
R70 has died. Nigel G Fisher R70 died
on 11 June 2003. We were recently told
that Robin S Holmes E73 died in
1998. Edmond P Portelli K74 died on
14 January 2004. We were notified in
March that Andrew G Rooke K74 died
some years ago. In November we were
informed by his wife, Karen née
Warriner R80, that Nicholas J
White R80 had died. We were notified
by her son that Elsie Browning R83
died in April 2003. In December we
were told that Jennifer H Vaughan
K84 died in 2000. We were informed in
January that Peter Wood K84 died in
1997. Jonathan Gould K88 has told us
that Steven A Karnay K90 died on 9
April this year. We recently learned of
the death of Janet A Bailey R91 on 2
October 2001. Andrew Paterson R92
died on 17 January 2002. Olive M
Scruton K95 died on 6 December. We
learned in January of the recent death of
Alan Eatock K97. Susan A
Villanueva (née Taylor) R97 died on 22
January.
Sir James Colyer-Fergusson, a major
benefactor to the University, died in
January this year. He had in the 80s made
a gift to support young humanities
scholars with their research, and in 1996
created an additional very generous
endowment from his charitable trust to
support Music at Kent. He is
commemorated at the University with an
annual Colyer-Fergusson Concert.
The Rev Canon Dr Derek Ingram
Hill DD, who received an Honorary
Degree from the University in 1983, died
last year.
1960s
Penny Cherns (E66) would like to find
Malachy O Higgins (E66) and Ahmed
Banaga (E66); Linda Jane (E67) wltf Valerie
Palmer (D67) and Patricia Simpson-
Sowerby (Rashbrook) (E67); Jo
Freeborough (de Clive-Lowe) (K68) wltf
Jennifer Gait (R69).
1970s
Makoto Honjo (K71) wltf Martyn Booth
(K69) and Duncan Cross (K68); Peter
Taylor (D71) wltf Maureen Morgan (R67);
Mehdi Alem (E72) wltf Irene Dipple and
Stephen Smith (both R73) and Manijeh
Nazery (R71); Peter Bone (K72) wltf Anne
Waterland (K72); Caroline Groves (D72)
wltf Caroline Betterton (D72); Yacoob
Haroon (R72) wltf Susan Hall (E72);
Michael Bolt (E73) wltf Stephen
Thumpston (E73); Peter Newton (E73)
wltf Stephen Thumpston (E73); Nina
Newton-Moumtzelis (K73) wltf Angela
Davies (K73); Carolyn Steele (E73) wltf
Michael Carter (E71); David Webber
(R73) wltf Mark Woodward (R73);
Only Connect • Spring 2004
Lost touch with an old friend? The Kent alumni database may be able to help. If we have a current address for them, we would be happy to forward a message
from you. If we too have lost touch, ‘Only Connect’, which is printed in the Kent Bulletin twice a year and on the Web each month, may get a response. And
please, if you do connect, let us know!
Malcolm Adcock (R76) wltf Christopher
Croughton (E75); Andrew Revans (E 76)
wltf Peter Ball (E76); Aftab Malik (R77) wltf
Surinder Dosanjh (D77); Mark Nichol
(D77) wltf Loraine Pereira (K77), Graham
Jack (D77), Jasbir Pabla (D77), Nigel
Crouch (D77), Merv Woods (D77) and
Claire Rymell (Morton) (R77); Julian
Stacey (K77) wltf Robert Morley (K82);
Lee Hua/Serena Yee (K77) wltf Jennifer
Puah (K77); Tom Wingate (R78) wltf Juliet
Doyle (E78); Irfan Altaf (R79) wltf Neville
Jacob (R79); Di Owen (K 79) wltf Andrea
Gall (K79) and Charlotte Hague (K78);
Sarah Sheehan (K79) wltf Anne-Marie
Porisse-Girard (E79); Amanda Thomas
(Jones) (E79) wltf Susan Hendrie (E79).
1980s
Jan Comrie (Herbert) (E80) wltf John
Chisholm (K81) and Stephen Whiston
(R81); Thomas Tsui (K80) wltf Corinne
Chee (D80); Neale Whyatt (K80) wltf
Mohammad Zadeh Morshed Beik (D80);
Edward-Paul Agbaje (E81) wltf Teresa
Rock (D80); Keith Arbour (D81) wltf Jeni
Price (R81); Michael Manoussopoulos
(R81) wltf Simon Tang (R81); Jan Miasik
(E81) wltf Josephine Walshe (K82); Clive
Staple (D81) wltf David Brammer (K81),
Sally-Jane Ewin (E81), Anthony Gilling
(K82) and Stephen Bowden (E82); Paul
Beaumont (E82) wltf Seraphina Wong
(E82); Man-Chung Tsang (R83) wltf
Joseph Woo (R83); Kate Horn (Eccles)
(E84) wltf Susan Osborne (E84); Alison
Dalby (K85) wltf Adrian Nelson (K82);
James Hunt (K85) wltf Karen Morgan
Ferraro (R85) and Matthew Ferraro (R85);
Bernard Hemingway (R86) wltf Helen
Charles (R89); Lisa Neden (Bush) (E86)
wltf Charles Denham (E86); Antonio Olivo
Farias (R86) wltf Haitham Salam (K86);
Silvester Phua (R86) wltf Simon Knowles
(R86); Tom Klein (R88) wltf Paula
Jefferson (R88), Helen Millward (R88),
Emma Coxon (R88), Anthony Brown
(R85), Katherine Henderson (K88),
Elizabeth Yorke (R88) and Fiona Doherty
(R88); Gregory Weinkauf (R88) wltf
Melanie Shearer (R88); Bradley Burns
(D89) wltf Deborah Nayar (R92); Ana
If your name is listed above and you have been lucky enough to re-connect, please let us know. Thank you.
Gaspar (K89) wltf Jinhyuk Chung (R89).
1990s
Ahmed Al-Sawaei (E 90) wltf Husam
Dughman (D88); Leslie Carpenter (D90)
wltf Mark English (E87); Khang Chew
(K90) wltf Andrew Brittain (K88); Robert
Gueterbock (E 90) wltf Jane Turner (R92);
Crystal Cunningham (Hutton) (D91) wltf
Barry Kiernan (D91); Russ Hayton (R91)
wltf Julie Baden-Powell-Jones (D92);
Cornelis Tanis (R91) wltf Hanan Hamdan
(R91); Christopher Davis (E92) wltf Roy
Cogo (E93); Zoel Othman (E92) wltf
Panagiotis Leventis (R92); Angela Day
(R93) wltf Gina Barton (E93); Emine Evci
(R93) wltf ’93 Biodiversity and Ecology
grads; Caroline Hossein (E 93) wltf Joo
Hwang (R92) and Abdullah Qahtani (D91);
Nigel Mifsud (E93) wltf Hosam El-Bilbaisi
(K93); Kevin Breidenbach (R95) wltf Claire
Casey (K95); Simon Angundua Ajiku (R97)
wltf David Gomez (R97); Fatima Jaffer
Mohammed (E98) wltf Alexander
Malahias (E99).
2 2

Kent
Business
School
Flexible and supportive business education with a global perspective
Postgraduate programmes
• MBA (full and part time) The chief vocational qualification for anyone
interested in developing a career in business or management
• MBA (E-Business) (full and part-time) A masters in Business Administration
for those wishing to specialise in E-business
• MBA (Public Sector Management) A specialist variant of the MBA designed
to meet the needs of the public sector
• Master of European Business Administration (MEBA) An international
graduate management programme run in collaboration with partner institutions
• MSc in Management Science For graduates interested in the quantitative
aspects of business studies
• MSc in Management Science with Computing As with the MSc in Management
Science, but with additional computing content
• Research Degrees (MA, MSc, MPhil and PhD) Available in Accounting,
Industrial Relations, Management, Management Science and Operational
Research. 1+3 (4 year) studentships available for research degrees in Business
Management
www.kent.ac.uk/KBS/
For further details contact
The Admissions Office, Kent Business School, The University, Canterbury,
Kent CT2 7PE, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1227 827726 Fax: +44 (0)1227 761187
Email: KBSadmissions@kent.ac.uk
23

40 th
Mark the 40 th anniversary
anniversary
reunion weekend in your
diary now and tell your
friends you plan to attend
8 – 10 April 2005
Please contact
alumni@kent.ac.uk