"I can't say I have ever had much of a passion for proper . In fact, on about the only occasion I ever did any, I disliked the experience very much. I was about 23, and, wearying of ever finding a full-time job in , I got myself enrolled as a temporary member of staff at a northern university where I spent about four months on a cold, treeless fell, counting s. It was very boring and drove me to the bottle."