Presents!

Tonight we welcomed two sets of parents. They have come to visit because I am delivering my long-anticipated inaugural professorial lecture tomorrow.

My parents are notorious for disobeying instructions. "What shall we bring?" asked my mother last week. "Flapjacks and daffodils from the garden" I replied. You'll see that the haul was slightly more - and immediately after I took this picture my father walked into the kitchen with yet another present, a copy of The legacy of Hartlepool hall signed by the author. They are incorrigible.

The other set of parents brought a small box of chocolates - thank goodness for that!