Fire drill

Appearances can be deceptive. The jovial fellow who popped up just as I was capturing the scene of our fire drill this morning is a good example. He used to be my boss. These days he heads up the business that owns the one I work for. He thinks in £ hundreds of millions. I personally owe him. He is one of a tiny handful of people I have encountered in my life who made a big difference to my perspectives at a critical moment. One of a tiny handful of people I have ever known who has the charisma to light up a room full of jaded workers but also the emotional intelligence to know just how to steer you when you're on the knife edge. He's the sort of bloke who - born in a different era - might have led his men, cheering, over the tops of trenches and into the abyss of no man's land, brandishing nothing but his Webley revolver. But for all that, he's a regular person too. You could say he's a bit of a character all round.