My teaching certificate is from the University of Leeds (Oastler College of Education) and my MPhil is from the University of Bradford (both in the UK, of course) but my BA is from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ... and it is the U of A I remember most affectionately. Why?

1. The Performing Arts they offer is brilliant. Some of the good habits inculcated in the Stagecraft & Directing courses have stayed with me to the point of becoming part of my psyche. If something starts ('curtain up') at 7.30 then neither 7.31 nor 7.29 is good enough! I taught drama in school, ran a Youth Theatre and directed on the London 'fringe' before my tumour forced me to stop ... but the habit is still there - I can't abide a late start to a function!

2. The course I took in 'The Craft of Writing' has paid me dividends all my life. I can still remember some of the rows I had with my course tutor about the the word 'whilst ' and 'whilst' I still think I'm right about that, he made me aware of a lot of common mistakes. I always regret not being able to fit in the Creative Writing course too: it's taken me years to learn, by trial and error to write creatively.

3. I was (of course) younger and fitter then. I followed several of the U of A 'Golden Bears' sport teams enthusiastically (though I was never good enough to playany sport myself (I love ice hockey but I'm a very poor skater and I was never much good at any sport involving hitting a ball with something else - baseball, cricket, tennis, badminton, even golf!)

4. The U of A Alumni Association is very good at keeping track of me and keeping me reminded of my U of A days and what the university is up to now.

I guess the U of A has changed a lot physically since I took this picture in the early 1970s - it's certainly grown a lot - but it still seems to care about students and alumni!

Of course part of it is that Alberta is such a big beautiful province: several times larger in area than the UK with a population less than that of London, England. The two things that surpised me most about it is that the border between British Columbia and Alberta is the Rocky Mountain watershed - half the Rockies are in Alberta , including two huge National Parks and that it's 2000 feet (700 metres) up - it just doesn't feel high, but you'll be safe from global warming and rising sea levels there!

Alberta includes half the Rocky Mountains One of my daughters panning for gold at the Klondike days exposition - now her daughters are at university. Where have the years gone?

I paid much of my way through university working nights and weekends as a security guard - guarding holes in the ground, acting as a (very nervous) bouncer at several functions, going into creepy factories late at night to make sure there were no intruders ... I suppose I survived by being young and determined!

Incidentally, don't be put off because I'm eccentric and an individual - what the U of A did for me is a credit to them, but what I am as an individual is a matter me: all they did was teach me to think, which is why I've been National Secretary of the UK Green Party in its early days, better at writing than selling my writing and for 35+ years a student of the occult.

My interest in things environmental did start at the U of A - I ran (as a candidate for the Stony Plain constituency) in the 1970 Alberta Provincial Elections ... and I've been fighting lost causes ever since! I read 'Silent Spring' and wrote this little sonnet about the time I was a student.

Everyone recognizes the Canadian Maple Leaf but the wild rose grows everywhere in Alberta, which is probably why the province chose it as a symbol

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