It’s a skill I have, unlike most people. Take Sayers yesterday. Didn’t know me, or even his own name, poor old thing. Insisted he was called Phillips. Sad when people lose it like that. The staff aren’t much better. They’ve put the wrong name on the door of my room.

Chris Cottom lives near Macclesfield, UK. One of his stories was read aloud on the Esk Valley Railway between Middlesborough and Whitby. In the early 1970s he lived next door to JRR Tolkien. chriscottom.wixsite.com/chriscottom