Recalling one of his favorite teachers as a teenager: "My favourite
teacher was Mr. Austin Thomas. He looked like Lee Marvin. Big Man. A
Captain in World War II. He came to school on a big bush bike with the
haversack on back. He was a man's man. Always fair. I was fourteen at
the time when Mr. Thomas introduced the class to poetry and Greek
literature. (Because of him, I saved seven shillings and sixpence to
buy The Iliad and The Odyssey at this dusty used book shop.)"