Returning to the time when I went back to Eton for the Summer half, I knew in my heart that I would need to come to terms with Simpson and his friends, if ever I was going to get elected into Debate. Unless I could overcome that hurdle, my further advancement in the school was liable to be curtailed. But the capitulation was made relatively easy for me in that I had been the natural choice to row as stroke in Jaques' Bumping IV, and the coaching of that crew had fallen largely to Simpson who was our head wet-bob. It was merely a question of me accepting his authority without demur, while striving to do well as an oarsman, and the relationship then took care of itself. After perceiving that my diffidence towards him had disappeared, he became cautiously friendly once again. And with my successes on the river, my popularity with his friends in Debate was also more evident.

At the same time, Simpson's star was no longer in the ascendant. At the start of the Summer half, it had been fully expected that he would be next year's Captain of Boats: a post that would have earned him automatic election into Pop. He was in the Eton VIII, but during the final courses before rowing at Henley, it was discovered that he lacked staying-power. It was too late to drop him from the VIII, for this would have unsettled the rest of the crew. But his reputation as an oarsman had foundered: a stylist without sheer guts. He was demoted on the list, with Macmillan now taking precedence over him. And it was generally rumoured that he would be dropped completely from the VIII next summer. None of this was strictly my concern however, and the truth of the matter is that there wasn't much sympathy for his plight amongst those immediately younger than himself. He had been a degree too arrogant when severing his ties with us at the time when he was first elected into Debate.

But my own star was indeed in the ascendant, and I was elected into Debate at the beginning of the Michaelmas half. So I had now been accepted within the confraternity of boys at the top of m'tutor's, who demonstrated the fact by the very free use of each other's Christian names, and I was now entitled to send the Lower boys at Jaques' upon fagging errands.

The bitterness which I had harboured over the past year towards Iain (Graham-Wigan) and John (Ganzoni) was also now placed within perspective, although I would no longer have rated either of them as a close friend. But we got along all right, and I was extending the circle of my friendships nowadays so as to encompass a greater number of people from other houses.

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