A chance meeting with Private Eye Editor Ian Hislop in an Oxford college, the enthusiasm of my new colleague Andrew Halls and the innovative outlook of Barnaby Lenon as a new Head combined to enable the creation of Speakers' Corner, a programme of visiting speakers who came to Trinity, mostly at lunchtimes, to share insights into their careers with an audience of boys, staff and members of the public.

The programme opened with a talk by Margaret Thatcher's former Press Secretary Sir Bernard Ingham one January lunchtime in 1996 and was followed, after school, by an even more popular visit by Hislop in the main hall.

Hislop answered questions, I chaired it but boys soon came forward to take on roles on the Speakers' Corner team. There followed politicians ranging from Chris Mullin to Ann Widdecombe, writers and journalists including historian Lord Blake, Viz editor Chris Donald, BBC presenter James Naughtie and Kate Adie; and Times journalist Michael Gove. A newly created room in the main quad was used for lunches and the coverage in the Croydon Advertiser led to Trinity's profile being higher than that of another Croydon boys' school (!), leading Jack Doyle (who later led communications at 10 Downing Street) to call it "PR Corner".

Edward Wild