#foreverkeele

“They do not go to the university to acquire culture, but to get a job, and when they have one they scamp it. They have no manners, and are woefully unable to deal with any social predicament .Their idea of a celebration is to go to a public house and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious and envious. They will write anonymous letters to harass a fellow undergraduate  and listen in to a telephone conversation that is no business of theirs. 

Charity, kindliness, generosity are qualities they hold in contempt. They are scum. They will in due course leave the university. Some will doubtless sink back, perhaps with relief, into the modest class from which they emerged; some will take to drink, some to crime and some to prison”

Somerset Maugham.

And I thought I’d look back on Keele, centre of the known universe (class of 2006 here!)

Keele was established in 1948 as part of the rapidly dashed hopes of the postwar world, and has educated generations of people who didn’t do well enough at school to go anywhere else legends ever since.

“I’ve always wanted to be happy, so I decided to be” (future President) Neil Baldwin.

And who could fail to agree at the world’s best university on an autumn afternoon, today and (2) March 2016, (4,7,9) April 2017.

Keele Hall in its present form (a Grade II listed building) was built in 1851, the Sneyd family having been prominent local landowners for centuries beforehand, and the university has been here since 1948. Keele now boasts a superb display of spring flowers bolstered by the recent National Collection of Flowering Cherries on the university campus, a status awarded to the university by Plant Heritage in 2012.

Keele, where Sheffield rejects warriors go (class of 2006 I am).

NEIL BALDWIN for president!

I remember him as a presence in my Keele days. I didn’t actually know who he was, he was just there, without being a student or working there, he just hung round. He used to talk to my friend, but when I asked him he didn’t know who Nello was either.