Alan Bristow, whose obituary appears in today’s Guardian, was clearly quite a character. Here was a man who once threw Douglas Bader into a swimming pool (pity it wasn’t a pond, I sighed) and called him a “tin-legged git”. I was particularly struck by one little detail, maddeningly not expanded upon, one of those asides that have you clamouring for more information.

Bristow survived into old age to die at 85, just a decade after licensing for production a patent “water bed” for cows…

What? What what what? It is sometimes said that Hooting Yard is “odd” or “wacky”, but the “real world” is infinitely more strange.