Today brought a visit to Thomas' Battersea, to attend the Readers' Cup Challenge, a competition which is a sort of cross between University Challenge and a very polite riot. I was given an extremely warm welcome by the staff, and led into their very impressive hall. There were four teams, each representing a house in the school (and all named after famous Thomases - Lawrence, More, Hardy and ... the other one escapes me). The teams had to answer some extremely tricky questions about the three set books, which were: I Am David by Ann Holm, Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and.... The Other Book by, er, you know, that chap, er, what's his name? er... Philip something... oh yes, Philip Womack.
The questions were answered with speed and depth. I confess I'd forgotten the answers to a couple of them. What were the names of Wentlake de la Zouche's dogs, I could remember - Blanche and Fairfax; but I hadn't remembered that Edward's toy is called Milo the hippo. I was also able to fulfill one of my dreams, which is to be as much like Bertie Wooster as it is humanly possible to be (hence the picture: obviously I was wearing a very similar get-up): step one, give the prize away at a school speech day. It wasn't technically a speech day, but still. Next I need to buy some purple spats...
So an enormous thank you to the staff and pupils of Thomas' Battersea, and keep on reading.
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