Handsome, intimidatingly brilliant and somewhat unhinged, The Dean of College is a force of nature. Little is known about The Dean’s personal life, if he indeed has one, as he takes his role very seriously indeed. Answerable only to The Master (and often, not even him), his primary objective in College is to ensure everything is done in the correct way, which is, of course, his way. The Dean’s area of academic excellence lies in law and he is unusual among The Fellowship in that he actually had a highly successful career out in the real world before taking the mantle of Dean at Old College. He has travelled widely and has a worldliness that is noticeably absent in many of his learned colleagues. Often unintentionally hilarious, his bombastic mindset is both terrifying and awesome to behold. He carries himself with the kind of justified arrogance one cannot help but admire and he is truly the power behind the throne at Old College. His influence reaches to the very top of The University itself and he is a man to be crossed at one’s peril.
Despite dedicating himself to a totalitarian rule of Old College, The Dean still finds time to indulge in (and often instigate) the exploits and investigations that arise from the Porters’ Lodge. His great sense of adventure means he has no qualms about covering up murders, nor even embarking upon a sham affair with Deputy Head Porter. He has limited tolerance for foolishness and insists that whisky is the only proper beverage to be consumed after elevenses.
The Dean has always been my very favourite character of Old College. He is enormous fun to write as he really can do or say pretty much anything and get away with it. One of the original cast, he is based quite heavily on the real Dean from my time as an actual Deputy Head Porter. DHP’s admiration for The Dean comes from my own open-mouthed veneration for the larger-than-life, stentorian gentleman that would strut about College as if he owned the place. His literary namesake is quite obviously an exaggerated parody; the original possesses a very dry sense of humour (which, by his own admission, was subject to failure on occasion) and a consummate professionalism that the Old College version lacks. I am incredibly tempted to introduce you to the real Dean, but he is even more fearsome than the Old College version and if he isn’t amused, vengeance would be swift and definite. I fear nothing and no one – except the Dean of College.
Lucy Brazier 
Well, well, well. It is good to see the gang together. And a splendiferously impressive bunch they look.
You are too kind. I rather thought we looked like extras from Crimewatch. Still, at least we all have a drink, which is at least something.
Pleased to be meeting everyone!
Me too, actually – this is the first time I have written in detail about each character and I am quite enjoying it!
Yes, it’s fun to write the biographies.
Sort of makes the characters feel that bit more real. Should have done this before writing the book, probably – but hey ho!
I think it might constrain development when starting off, but afterwards biogs serve as good continuity aids if another volume beckons.
I think you are right. This also gives me a platform to plug the book without it being all about buy the effing book. I should be off bonking the foreign secretary, not trying to sell books. Pah.
Errr……..?
Really???????
Well, anything has to be better than this self promotion lark.
REeeeeallly???????
Yup. I might even do some ironing, take my mind off it.
Given the choice between that & current Foreign Sec that is a very wise option.
And I can watch TV at the same time. It’s a plan.
Sounded indeed a better plan; it was the ‘Boris’ thing that had me worried.
Poor Boris. He gets such a bad wrap.
I guess so. There’s probably a suitable Latin quote.
Maybe one of your college characters can help out?
‘Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.’ Julius Caesar
Perhaps Boris is simply a victim of people wanting to believe him to be a wrong-un? (Probably pushing it a bit 😉 )
Yep good quote!
I’ll now rein in the grumpy old socialist (Jeremy’s ok…but a bit too lite for me) side of my character.
Please feel free to let the grumpy socialist rampage freely. Have you thought of seizing power from My Corbyn? I reckon you could be in with a good shot.
I don’t think they’d be too happy with someone who reckons
(1) Lenin knew how to run a political party,
(2) Oliver Cromwell had some good ideas
(3) Whose criticism of 1984’s O’Brien was that the fellow ‘just a bit too inflexible to be an effective civil servant’
(4) Whose main notion of government being a citizen’s civil rights are directly equal to their civil responsibilities- (said in a grim stentorian tone with hooded eyes and a stony face)
(And they’d never know whether I was being serious of not………..)
Errr…..
This was why my wife wouldn’t let me go into politics)
You make a very good point about Lenin, and I am with you on Cromwell. You are exactly the sort of person who should be in politics – although I can’t see Westminster offering a warm welcome to someone who 1) actually knows what they are talking about and 2) can see their trough-loving snout faces for what they really are. Sadly, we are probably destined to be stuck with facsimilies of the self-serving bastards we have now, regardless of party or political leanings. Pah.
I wouldn’t last a year; not after my first speeches on Nationalisation, Crime & Punishment (no not the novel) and an overhaul of the tax system ( I used to work in The ‘ Rev- so I know!!)…
There is this adage that Democracy is a poor form of government but that all the alternatives are so much worse.
I think with all the upheavals of late, there might be a general ‘coming around’
the meantime…let’s hear it for ‘Democratic Centralism’! (good old Lenin)…. I would love to explain that to some of the more vocal New Socialists who think it’s all about doing what they want….
I always think that the sort of people who crave and fight for that kind of power (political or otherwise) are absolutely the ones who should never have it. The sensible people have far more interesting things to do than fight their way through a corrupt and back-stabbing political system. The current state of affairs have at least forced a degree of change here and there. It shall be interesting to see where it all ends up.
The late Douglas Adams summed that up in in his Hitch Hiker’s Guide trilogy, when discussing the problem of who was fitted to be President. It was just that who wanted to be President was the least suited. In the end it was a guy who lived by himself on a planet and didn’t know he was President.
We shall see, we shall see.
In the meantime, we all keep on writing!
Douglas Adams was a very clever chap. It must have been from there that I picked up on that idea, I reckon. Well, writers gotta keep writing – keeps us out of trouble at any rate!
True.
Goodness knows what our fevered minds would get up to otherwise.
Yes, I dread to think!
Indeed!
So I must put away my plans to take over the Labour party and impose a grim socialist regime on the country and return to my projects.
Fantasy masterpieces and definitive histories of these isles don’t write themselves y’know.
Hurrah! Not that you wouldn’t be an excellent leader, but I do love those histories.
Morning’….
My wise and dear wife has also reminded me my idea of how to run the Justice system might run into problems with many Civil & Human rights groups…..so it’s probably best to leave that plan and continue with quest to put the historical record right.
Glad you’re enjoying them, next one to follow sometime this week…
If we ever invoke Article 50 we could probably do away with the Human Rights Act – put you are most probably right, as your endeavours with regards to history are far more important (and entertaining!) than trying to sort out that lot in Whitehall. I look forward to the next one!
Trailer: Saxons arrive and decide to stay. Vortigen. Victim of a bad press? Britons re-invent themselves.
Excellent!!