When it came to the end of the Michaelmas half, all members of the Library were due to leave - apart from Jeremy Thomas, that is to say. Hugh Lawson, Gordon Simpson and Michael Parker were amongst those who departed. Anyway, Jeremy now became the House Captain, and was free to appoint a new Library of his own choice: namely John Wood - as Captain of Games - Roger Cunliffe, Iain Graham-Wigan, and myself as the Junior Member who had to perform any chores, such as the collecting of fines, or the issue of routine instructions to the rest of the house. Not that I resented it, in that others from our group were still confined to Debate: namely John Mander, Richard Timpson, Adam Fergusson and John Ganzoni. So my promotion to the Library marked a distinct elevation in status, which involved a considerable amount of domestic prestige.

I was also transferred to one of the rooms that were traditionally occupied by the Library. This was at the far end of the second landing, and it was notable that Jaques placed the two most vulnerable pretty-boys in the Lower School on either side of my own room. I believe that he did this in the confidence that I could be relied upon to protect their chastity from any potential night prowlers. Nor did I betray that trust!

I really only used this room when I needed to work, or to sleep, for being in the Library entailed that far more of a club life atmosphere now prevailed. There was much mobbing, with mock wrestling matches and general high spirits, for we alone it would seem were entitled to make the kind of din for which our lesser brethren would be severely punished. But it was a convivial atmosphere, and we all got on very well together, revelling in our new-found authority. There was the novelty of sitting there voyeuristically, late in the evening, while Jeremy administered a beating up to some wretched miscreant from the Lower school. (Sobs of pain were not uncommon.) We were also entitled to open the library door and shout "BOY!" whenever we needed to send someone upon a fagging errand. And sometimes we did this collectively in descant, like a barber's shop quartet.

Jeremy was the dominant personality. He maintained a measure of aloofness which permitted friendship, but not intimacy. We all developed a respect for him, although he wasn't the sort of person that I personally might choose as an intimate confident. For there was a stiffness about him which verged upon pomposity.

My most vivid memory of him was when he obliged me to come clean with regard to my guilt about urinating in the bath. It has to be confessed that I had done this on a whole variety of occasions in the past; a matter of relieving my bladder while still sitting there in a full bath. I had always assumed that the traces of my uncleanliness were drained away with the bath water. But one of the boys' maids had especially sensitive nostrils and, on this occasion, decided to bear her complaint to the House Captain, who then took it upon himself to unearth the culprit for a beating.

The first I heard of the matter was when Jeremy asked all members of the Library if they had used that particular bathroom on the previous evening. I could answer him in all truth that I hadn't, for my crime had been committed this very morning. Then he began muttering about the disagreeable task which now confronted him, for he would now be obliged to question all the people who had used the bath that evening.

There the situation remained for several hours - with Iain making far too pointed jests about the mal soigné toad who had fouled up their bath. I realised how the situation was deteriorating fast, and that my wisest course was to accept the humiliation of admitting my offence to Jeremy, before he had actually started to interrogate any other members of the house. So I took him to one side and admitted that it was I, but that I hadn't lied to him in that the urination had taken place at a time different than the one he had assumed.

I was overheard, and there was a chorus of guffaws from the likes of Roger and Iain - who promptly avowed that he had known from the start who the culprit must be. (It was evidence of his sadism, I noted.) But for my own part, I felt that I had salvaged a minimum of dignity by my fairly prompt confession. And Jeremy thanked me graciously for saving him from the embarrassing task upon which he had been about to embark, if I had held my tongue.

Notwithstanding such lapses in my social graces, I remained quite a popular figure in the Library. I was also aware how my general popularity in the school was rising too. I was never someone who could be accused of pop-oiling; (the term given to those who licked the arses of the school's elite.) I was far too shy nowadays, of giving anyone above me the impression that I was seeking their patronage. But it was a natural part of my gradual elevation within the school that I was beginning to have friends in Pop. There was Francis Hoare and Robin Douglas-Home, for example. Both of them from Ludgrove, as it may be recalled.

As the end of the Easter half drew nigh, the question was just faintly in the air as to whom Jaques would appoint as the next House Captain. In point of fact it was more or less automatic at Eton that the post fell to him who stood highest upon the school list, within the Library. Roger would be leaving, as well as Jeremy; so by that criterion, the choice must inevitably fall on Iain. But it so happened that Jaques and Iain did not see eye to eye, so that he might well have chosen to pass him over by appointing myself to that position. For my personal relationship with Jaques had always been excellent.

It is my belief that Jaques would have appointed me if it hadn't been for Jeremy's intercession. It would have involved much loss of face for Iain, if he had been passed over. And Jeremy was Iain's friend nowadays, sharing messing arrangements with him and John Ganzoni. I have no means of knowing precisely what discussion may have taken place between Jaques and his House Captain as to whom to appoint as his successor, but Jeremy was always forceful and persuasive in his arguments. And the net result was that Jaques finally agreed that Iain's expectations should be fulfilled.

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