College Record 2017

under my brilliant and admirable immediate successor, Philomen Probert, and then
under the President-Elect, Tim Hitchens, who I think is a magnificent choice for your
next President.
I think of being the head of a College as rather like running a relay race, not that I
was ever any good at that at school. You concentrate as much as you can and put
as much energy and vigour and force and alertness into your bit of the race as you
have, and then you pass on the baton. I apologize for the platitude. But it is heartfelt.
To have been given the chance to be part of the team for these nine years, and to
lead this College through to its fiftieth anniversary, has been one of the astonishing
opportunities of my life. And in order to do it, I have relied completely on all those
around me.
So my main emotion, in bidding you farewell, is gratitude. Gratitude to the wise
heads of the College who came to an agreement with me when I arrived, that I
should be able to take academic sabbatical terms and concentrate on my research in
the vacations, which has enabled me to write one biography and make considerable
headway on a second while I have been here. Gratitude to the staff of the College,
whose dedication and loyalty and commitment to this institution is altogether
remarkable. Gratitude to all those of my academic colleagues, whose achievements I
enormously admire, who make Wolfson what it is and who have supported, advised
and encouraged me in my work here. To the friends of Wolfson, far and near, who
have been so generous to the College. To all the students and research fellows I have
come to know, and who have made my life here exciting and interesting with their
intellectual adventures. And to those Wolfsonians who are no longer with us, and to
whose memories I am very attached. I name, in particular, our dear colleague, the
poet, biographer and Professor of Literature, Jon Stallworthy, who was the person
who first enticed me to Wolfson, and whose support, humour and friendship were of
the utmost importance to me until his death in 2014. I am very grateful to the College
for taking me on and for giving me this chance to be a leader, for a time, in Wolfson’s
history, out of a life-time of writing and teaching and publishing. And I am also very
grateful to the person who has given me wise advice and endless support, every
day not just for the last nine years but for over forty years, the College’s Honorary
Fellow John Barnard.
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