The Full Monty
was a boy – admittedly a while ago – my school was part of a proudly archaic system. Our history lessons were based on two sets of dates that we had to learn by heart. One was ‘Kings’ – the reigns of every British monarch since William the Conqueror (still tattooed into my brain). The other was ‘Specials’ – 40-odd events starting with the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and ending at the Relief of Mafeking in
