When the recordings were finished in December 1987, Dickinson moved to Bonn, so that he could be close to the West Germany training centre for fencing. At the end of the ’80s Dickinson was at the peak of his fencing career, eventually ranked as high as 7th in Great Britain in the men’s foil discipline, while his club side, the Hemel Hempstead Fencing Club, represented Great Britain in the European Cup of 1989.

“Dickinson was later expelled from Oundle for urinating in the headmaster’s dinner. His co-urinator was rusticated; that is sent home for the rest of the term rather than being permanently excluded from the school, on the grounds that the contribution to the headmaster’s beans had been Dickinson’s idea.”