The Oldie

My clean sweep

The return of the Wimbledon Championships this year restores a much-loved fixture of our summer calendar – and delivers an injection of nostalgia for the greatest job I ever had.

In 2000, after graduating from Loughborough University, I rewarded my parents’ investment by beginning my working life – as a toilet attendant. The job provided me with an important lesson. The lowliest role affords the greatest opportunities.

All attendants were allocated one toilet each. I was selected (hand-picked, I liked to think)

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Oldie

The Oldie1 min read
Fall Of Civilizations
Duckworth, 544pp, £25 Citing his historical novels and wildly popular podcast, the Sunday Times’s Max Hastings declared Cooper ‘a phenomenon’: ‘a gifted collector of historical jigsaw pieces’ unveiling ‘a host of things we never knew about places tha
The Oldie2 min read
I Am My Brother’s Keeper
I used to query the accuracy of ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ (Matthew 5:4) When we are young, grief feels incomprehensible and wrong. When we get old, the truth of this Beatitude comes into its own: we realise that grie
The Oldie3 min read
Floral Queen
In 1703, Mary Somerset (1630-1715), the 1st Duchess of Beaufort, commissioned Everard Kik, a Dutch botanical artist, to create a series of paintings showing the extraordinary variety of plants she had grown from seeds sent to her from all over the wo

Related Books & Audiobooks