What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
I’m known for my spontaneity, so choosing the most spontaneous thing I’ve ever done is difficult.
I’d been going out with my new girlfriend for three days when I was already itching to ask her to marry me. She pushed back — quite reasonably — but I persisted. Within a month we were engaged, with a ring on her finger. That was May 1990. We’re still married.
Then there was the morning I went for an early swim on the South Coast. Afterwards I saw the SeaCat sitting in Newhaven Harbour and thought, why not? Within an hour I was gliding across the English Channel. My wife and children were still asleep when I rang home from Dieppe. This was 2004.
“Guess where I am?”
Another time, three lads were busking their way through an Underground train in London. I liked what I heard, gave them my card and told them to get in touch. They did. I became their manager. That was 1986.
And then there was politics. I had only just joined the Green Party when the local party agent rang to welcome me. By the end of the phone call I had agreed to stand for election. That was 2019. I was duly elected and have now been a councillor for seven years.
That is probably how spontaneity works for me. I see something, meet someone, hear an idea, and instead of wondering about it for six months I think: why not?
Sometimes that has meant crossing the Channel before breakfast. Sometimes managing a band. Sometimes entering local politics. Often just buying the book. Feeding my curiosity. Satisfying an itch.
And once, after three days, deciding I’d met the woman I wanted to marry.
Perhaps that one wins.
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