Dispatches From a Dilettante by Paul Rowson

Author:Paul Rowson [Rowson, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Retail, Personal Memoir, Nonfiction
Amazon: B006QLAXQ8
Publisher: Paul Rowson
Published: 2011-12-26T05:00:00+00:00

12.

TRAUMA AND TRAVEL 1990-1992

In a job, in a dinner jacket, in a taxi with my wife and heading in a hurry for a Prince’s Trust Royal film premier at Leicester Square, self belief was running high and my increased ego had caused an enlargement of my cranium to the extent that I struggled to get out of the taxi door on arrival. Press photographers had rushed forward as it halted and then quickly turned away as they realised the occupants were ‘nobodies’ as opposed to the ‘C’ list celebrities due to arrive.

The Prince of Wales and Diana were in attendance which did give the event some genuine glamour and we were sitting two rows behind them. The audience and Royals then had to sit through ‘Steel Magnolias’ - a film of such unremitting awfulness that never at any point did it look like rising to mediocrity. It was late and we dozed through the last half an hour and then, as protocol demanded that nobody leave until the royal party had departed, we were awoken by the clamour as they did so. There followed an almighty crush as people rushed down the stairs to try and get in the press flashlights as the Royal Group chatted to crowds outside.

We decided to avoid this by going down another exit staircase only to be met by a couple of glamorously dressed attendees rushing back up. Clearly they had wanted to be in the limelight by going out of the main exit and were arguing vociferously as they tried to rectify their mistake. “You shouldn’t have worn that bleedin’ dress Debbie it looks crap”, was the final comment I heard as they disappeared back into the throng suggesting that the argument would continue long after they had departed from Leicester Square.

Conveniently I have excluded this period in my working life from subsequent CVs as, were it to be included, head hunters would have binned an application at the point they read about this disjointed but enlightening couple of years.

A multi millionaire property magnate had offered the Prince’s Trust ‘about a million and a half pounds’ to buy a building for residential courses. Without doubt this arriviste felt that his desire for a knighthood might be enhanced by a significant philanthropic gesture. Based on a feasibility study it was decided that the building should be northern central England. I was appointed as the first director and given the initial task of finding a property based on the requirements and budget. It was quite amusing for a man of my modest means to go into an estate agent’s in 1990 in the north of England and casually say that I was looking for a house, because after the first question from the agent which was usually about the price range, there usually followed an invitation to lunch. It was a surreal couple of months as our backer had given me the loan of his executive helicopter which came complete with Toby his pilot.

Eventually after seeing

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