THURSDAY 19th FEBRUARY 1980

Piner called a meeting of the heads of school to discuss the state of the prefects, she had noticed that they tended to cower in the library when they should be at their duty stations. Naturally I had ignored this since any attempt to force them would have been a waste of time and led to ill feeling and frankly when it comes to cowering, I do a fair bit myself.

We four seniors (Steve, Karen, Tracy and myself) discussed the issue; which was essentially that the prefects were not doing their job. I offered the vague notion that getting attacked by some of the nut jobs that inhabited the school was not part of the job, but there was no denying that there was an expectation that we should do something and the general view was that if the seniors had to put themselves at risk then the rest of the prefects should be doing something as well.

TP says that I need to speak to them. I concur, reluctantly but say that TP should be involved as well, I figure I may as well share the pain and if she had to confront the serried ranks of perfectdom each time she may feel less inclined to find fault so quite so much.



TUESDAY 22 FEBRUARY 1980
Speech-time: The prefects are gathered in the library and when I ask for their attention there is a certain amount of surprise, speeches from Cook are something of a rarity and although curious at first they quickly realise this is Cook is dull and official mode. I make my spiel short and not too sweent.

It was necessary for any prefect who did not want to be shoved out into the grey cold of the playground during breaks to behave like a prefect and go on duty (Actually I am not sure this is the case but the so called privilege of being inside while the rest of the school is outside, is the only leverage I have. If they realise they can be inside without being a prefect there will probably be a mass resignation...) Anyone who did not feel they could do this was to let one of us know and we would arrange for them to be replaced by a fifth former. I invited Piner to say something, naturally she didn’t.

Editors note.: Its puzzling that Cook who could normally wriggle out of any difficult situation decided to actually do something as seemingly foolish as read the riot to a bunch of pupils who regarded the riot as a legitimate means of expression. This in itself was an improvement on the lower year who regarded riots in the same way that factory workers regarded bank holidays! One interesting notion is that this sixth form were actually lazier than the previous year and the lack of action had become so bad that he was forced to take some measures to at least protect his own back.


WEDNESDAY 23rd FEBRUARY 1980.
We find ourselves in the now rubble filled classrooms that one day will be own very own sixth form centre. In some way I don’t fully understand this has been prompted by Ashok’s desire to find a place to hide some Turkish delight – hide in the sense that no one, himself included will ever be able to find it. I have no idea why throwing it in the bin is not acceptable, but perhaps we want to make life difficult for the builders. We dump it in some rubbish. Mark finds some old curtain tracking and proceeds to swing it around his head like a very Excalibur.

Some sixth sense makes me turn around to find Orme watching us through the window of the classroom. Knowing that letting Mark talk to Orme is asking for trouble, I step out to intercept our esteemed and possibly very pissed off headmistress. Unfortunately Mark and the other continue unaware that I have left.

Orme continues to stare at the animal house activities in the room as I join her and make commiserating noises. After what seems like an eternity but is probably no more than 30 seconds she speaks
“It's not dinkum!” she announces before walking away.

Sketch map of the sixth form centre, click for full size image.

THURSDAY 24th FEBRUARY 1980.
I hear on the grapevine that Steve is going to invite Beverley out. The fact that it is common knowledge in the sixth form suggests that he is doomed to fail. The information come from Stuart which rather suggests that Johnson has totally cocked this one up already.

I suspect the itinerary for the weekend has already been set.



FRIDAY 29th FEBRUARY 1980.
Steve is off sick, his parents rang into announce that he had drunk too much the previous night and was now ill. Neither Mark nor I were present during this mammoth session and it looks like he chose to ignore us and go for a session with our old friend and formal sixth former Mick Kerbey.

Mick had been a first year sixth former and had left at the end of the year having got the exams he needed to do whatever it was that he wanted to do. Steve, we discover was likely to be off school for several days

Given we have been known to consume five or six pints of beer and then simply go back to school the following day with little more than a pressing need for a cup of coffee and an aspirin, it rather looks like SMJ has hit the booze really hard. I think we can safely assume that Steve did not fare all that well with his plan to get Bev to go out with him. By the way the information came from Trevor, who probably told the rest of the sixth form as well.



FRIDAY 1st MARCH 1980.
Diane me called to see if I was planning to go to Karen Thomas’ party that night. Unfortunately I am feeling ill with a nasty touch of asthma, a regular condition for me and have to bow out. Pity that I was quite looking forward to it. Aside from anything else Karen lives within comfortable stroll from my house and that meant being able to get home without the traditional several mile hike.

Steve called, he tells me that he is over girls for good and that “cricket is now my only lover!”



SUNDAY 2nd MARCH 1980.
I hear that Karen’s party was marred by some unpleasantness, jewelery went missing from an upstairs bedroom during the course of the evening. The missing items were eventually located, so I am told, under the seat of Diane’s date for the evening, a former Gaynesfordian called Steve Grantham. Mark, my reporter for the evening tells me that although there was no proof, a considerable weight of suspicion fell on Mr Grantham’s shoulders. Given Mark’s relationship with Diane I am a little wary of accepting this as absolute fact. By Gratham is said to have some 'form'1 and a reputation for being trouble.


Editors note. In the early part of the 21st century some twenty years after these events Cook had a long term relationship with Debbie Thomas, the older sister of Karen, Cook's diaries of the time were predictably augmented with information about Gaynesford from both Debbie and her parents, Rita and Bill, who for a long time had been part of the school PTA. His diary in 2006 records some additional information from a lunch with his mother and father in law.

I have heard various accounts of the now infamous party from several different sources.; these include the tale circulated after the event and was propagated by Steve and the account from Debbie along with version from Bill and Rita (Thomas). Details differ from person to person and time had altered memory but it does seem that Diane's partner for the event, one Steve Grantham decided to try and steal some jewelery from the Thomas household. He appeared to have been spotted by Debbie who was sleeping in Karen's room having returned from work to find her room full of guests' coats. When the loss was discovered the party goers were downstairs and were threatened with the police at which point the jewelery appeared in the self-same chair that Steve G had been sitting in.

Rita and Bill were adamant that the jewelery was of minimum value and really more sentimental. But it seems incredible that Grantham would have done this. Even had he successfully lifted the items, the Thomas' would have undoubtedly called the Police when the theft was discovered. Rita Thomas worked for a local police station as a clerk and would not have hesitated to call in her 'friends.' Given that suspicion had fallen on Grantham almost immediately from the likes of Steve and the other sixth formers present awkward interviews down the local police station would have been likely – all for some trinkets which would fetch pennies with the fence. The conclusion is that Steve Grantham for all his formidable reputation as a fighter and all round 'merchant' cannot have been the brightest of souls or indeed the most considerate given the embarrassment he must have caused his girlfriend after the event.

1. A criminal record.


MONDAY 3rd MARCH 1980
Steve is a hero in the sixth form, anyone who can consume the beer he did and still be alive has to be a hero. The rumours about his feat of alcoholic consumption grow with each hour and by the end of the day he is thought to have drunk more than twenty pints of bitter and added several chasers. Mark and I bask in the reflected glory. There doesn't seem to have been any fall out from the business at the Thomas', things seem to happen so fast at times that the party already seems to have been an age ago.