MB Reed
Author and mathematician
Dame Evelyn Dick: an interview
In this series of Way of the World reports by Peter Simple, I will be interviewing some of this country’s leading cultural figures. First, I have come to the county of Rutland to visit one of Britains most progressive education institutions. Starting out as Uppingham Infant School, it became Uppingham Academy, then Rutland Technical College, and is now Rutland Idle University. I am meeting its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Evelyn Dick. Click the button below to read the full report: Dame Evelyn Dick: an interview: full story ED: Professor Dame Evelyn Dick, actually.
PS: I stand corrected, Dame Evelyn.
ED: Good. You may now sit.
PS: Thank you. Now I first wanted to ask about the universitys name. Why Idle?
ED: In the tradition of such venerable UK universities as Liverpool John Moores, Anglia Ruskin, Oxford Brookes and Bath Spa, we are named after a local hero, the Monty Pythonian and popular historian Eric Idle, who put Rutland on the map with his group The Rutles. I am incredibly proud and humbled to be playing my part in our beautiful county, my true home.
PS: So you are a Rutlander, born and bred.
ED: Not as such. I grew up in Cheltenham, actually. But here at RIU we we believe in personal truth, not the tyranny of facts. I feel myself a Rutlander, and that is all that matters.
PS: Let me ask about your background. It is in commerce rather than academia. But all the companies you have led - British Home Stores, Royal Bank of Scotland, Debenhams, Top Shop - have collapsed during your tenure. Do you feel any responsibility?
ED: Of course not. My achievements have been constantly undermined by discrimination and victim shaming, ever since the start of my career, as a lowly stable hand.
PS: Your earliest job was in a stables?
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