ISSUE NUMBER 6• FEBRUARY 2013

Alumni

Issue 6, July 2013

School of Geography

FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

Message from Head of School Dr David Bell 1

Research news

News in brief 2

Meet the staff Dr Duncan Quincey 4

Professor Jon Lovett - the U.N. conference in Doha 5

Where are they now? Fran Willby - Life Size Media 8

Andy Jordan - Made in Chelsea 9

Stevie Brodley - Geography at Morrisons 10

A study year down under

Amy Bell and Amy King 12

Reflections Professor Adrian McDonald - my time in the School 15

Montpellier remembered 17

City Journeys Dr Rachael Unsworth - fieldtrips for grown ups! 20

Meeting up with old friends MA GIS - class of 1995 22

Alumni Q & A Dr James Debenham, BA Geography 1999,

PhD 2003 25

Tessa Grant External Relations Manager and Alumni magazine editor

Graham Clarke Professor and Alumni magazine editor

Welcome Contents Letter from

the editor

Well another summer is upon us. As I write, the Ashes have begun

again and it’s fitting that we have an article on life down under from a

couple of our students enjoying one of the massive opportunities

Leeds provides – a study year abroad. Any student arriving at Leeds

should read this to appreciate the obvious enjoyment the two Amys

have shared. Also in this edition we profile two new members of staff:

Duncan Quincey and Jon Lovett. Welcome guys! Newer alumni will

be saddened to hear that Paul Wright and Nancy Worth will be

leaving us this summer – Nancy is going home to Canada and Paul

‘home’ to Newcastle. We wish them both the best for the future.

2012-2013 also saw the retirement of Leeds stalwart, Adrian

McDonald. Adrian is writing a book at the moment around his field

trip adventures and shares with you a short chapter – names have

been changed of course but you may think – hello, that rings a bell –

letters to the editor please! He also writes a review of his time with

us. Although retired, Adrian is still very active in the School and last

year came to Montpellier with us and it was fantastic to have him

back. The ‘Geography at…’ series focuses on the building of the site

location team at Morrisons which we have been delighted to watch

develop and provide the students for – what a team they have now!!

Enjoy the latest edition and, as ever, please do get in touch with your

interesting stories! (Tessa – once again a huge thanks for all your

hard work: Graham)

Graham & Tessa

Follow The School of Geography on Twitter @GeogLeeds

1

Alumni in the news!

The 59-year-old, who lives in Widcombe and is

president of Widcombe Social Club, was

previously made a CBE in 2006 for his work

keeping the capital’s transport system running in

the wake of the 7/7 bombings. This latest

recognition comes after the success of the

London Olympic Games and the Queen’s

Diamond Jubilee.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson welcomed Sir

Peter's knighthood. Johnson said: “Sir Peter

Hendy richly deserves this honour. He has shown

outstanding leadership as London’s Transport

Commissioner, including overseeing the largest

ever investment programme in the capital’s

transport network and record breaking passenger

numbers and operational performance. He also

led the successful operation of the transport

network for the London 2012 Games,

demonstrating to the world that London is the best

city to live, work, visit and invest in."

(Source: The Bath Chronicle)

As Head of School I am delighted to announce

that we have recently been ranked 19th best

geography department in the world according to

the QS World University Rankings. This is a huge

achievement and a fitting testament to the quality

of the research and teaching in the School.

As another academic year comes to an end, and

we see another cohort of graduands magically

transform into graduates, it’s great to receive

external recognition for all the hard work that

every member of our School community puts in.

And of course, waving goodbye to the Class of

2013 means another new set of readers and

possible contributors for our Alumni Magazine,

and yet more Leeds geographers heading off out

into the world.

As Head of School, I’m always so proud to see

our students doing so well – we’ve had an

excellent crop of degree results this year – and it’s

always a bit tear-jerking to see them fly the nest.

So it’s good to know that no Leeds geographer

ever completely leaves us, and it’s a reminder that

keeping in touch with our alumni is important and

rewarding; I can’t wait to hear about the next

chapter in your lives.

Peter Hendy, BA Economics & Geography 1975, the Commissioner for Transport for London has been given a knighthood for his services to transport and the community

Welcome

Dr David Bell, Head of School

2

Exploring energy gardens as a source for local fuel production

Paul Chatterton’s Leeds Lilac co-housing project

Investigating coastline dynamics in an increasingly stormy world

Paul Chatterton is the founder member and secretary of Lilac - the UK's

first affordable ecological cohousing project: a community of 20

households and a common house, based in Bramley, West Leeds.

The aim of LILAC is to:

Reduce their impact on the environment (by using sustainable

materials and reducing energy consumption)

Respond to the housing crisis (by providing permanently affordable

housing)

Build a beautiful, safe neighbourhood which maximises social

interaction between its residents and gives them direct power over

how their neighbourhood is run

Make a positive contribution to the surrounding community.

Find out more

Major impacts of climate change include global sea-level rise and increased

storminess which will impact on coastlines, coastal ecosystems and threaten

coastal societies to be investigated by researchers from the School of Geography.

Researchers from the White Rose University Consortium have been awarded a

White Rose University Consortium Collaboration Fund grant to collaborate on a

project titled ‘Coastline dynamics in an increasingly stormy world’. Dr Graeme

Swindles and Dr Clare Woulds (School of Geography, University of Leeds) will be

collaborating with the Principal Investigator, Dr Katherine Selby (University of York)

and Dr Mark Bateman (lead academic at the University of Sheffield).

Find out more.

Professor Jon Lovett, Chair in Global Challenges, has been awarded a

grant by the ESRC-DFID Development Frontiers Research Fund 2012/13 to

investigate the socio-economics of biomass energy production at the level

of households, small-scale farms and the communities where they are

situated.

The project, titled Energy Gardens for small-scale farmers in Nepal:

institutions, species and technology, aims to find a solution to the

controversies surrounding use of biomass and biofuels for energy

production by utilising indigenous plant species within the setting of small-

scale poor farmers and communities in Nepal.

The research team includes Leeds geographers, sociologists, economists,

botanists and engineers from the UK, Nepal and India.

Find out more.

Research news

3

Exploring energy gardens as a source for local fuel production

Investigating coastline dynamics in an increasingly stormy world

Space Law and Gender in a Delhi Squatter Settlement

Modern slavery in England is a prevalent problem

Deforestation in Africa’s Congo basin rainforest slows

Satellite images of Africa's Congo Basin reveal that deforestation has fallen

by about a third since 2000.Researchers believe this is partly because of a

focus on mining and oil rather than commercial agriculture, where swathes of

forest are cleared.

Dr Simon Lewis told the Today programme's Evan Davis that "we have seen

about a 30% reduction in the amount of area of forests lost over the 2000s

compared to the 1990s". He said that although this was good news and a "big

surprise," it did not mean that deforestation was not taking place on a large

scale.

The work published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

is part of a series that is examining the state of Africa's forests

Find out more

A new book by Ayona Datta titled The Illegal City: Space, law and

gender in a Delhi squatter settlement and published by Ashgate

explores the relationship between, space, law and gendered subjectivity

through a close look at an ‘illegal’ squatter settlement in Delhi.

Published as part of the Gender, Space and Society series, it

investigates developments since 2000 in nine chapters with titles such

as Violence of urban development, the construction of squatter camps,

contested boundaries of infrastructure and visions of the future.

A detailed description of the book and reviews can be found on the

publisher’s website.

Find out more.

The first evidence of widespread ‘modern slavery’ in England for refugees and

asylum seekers is revealed in a study published today. The two-year study

calls for an overhaul of government policy to restore asylum seekers’ right to

work and ensure all workers can access basic employment rights, such as

National Minimum Wage, irrespective of immigration status.

Dr Stuart Hodkinson from the University of Leeds, who co-authored the study,

said: “We found that in the majority of cases, if the asylum seeker had been

able to work legally then the employer or agent would not have been able to

exploit and abuse them to such an appalling extent.”

Find out more.

Research news

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My background is in remote sensing – which by

definition means we can observe the

environment without actually being there. But I

quickly learned that all remote sensing needs

ground validation – something I cite regularly as

justification for visiting various wild and

mountainous landscapes!

The path to becoming a lecturer in the School of

Geography is one that I can trace back to my first

remote sensing lecture as an undergraduate at

Durham University – and for the first time finding

a subject in which I could see myself forging a

career. That took me to Aberdeen where I

completed an MSc in Environmental Remote

Sensing, and then to NERC, where I worked with

their Airborne Remote Sensing Facility. When I

saw a PhD advertised at Aberystwyth with a

requirement to spend long field seasons at high-

elevation I jumped at the chance – that was when

I became interested in glaciology, and I have

been remotely sensing mountain glaciers ever

since!

I am particularly interested in how mountain

glaciers are responding to climatic change – as

this has important implications for downstream

water supply and also because some of the

changes can be hazardous for people living in

the local region. Most of my research focuses on

the Himalayas

– and

specifically the

northern-most

areas of

Pakistan,

India, Nepal

and Bhutan.

Water released

by glacier melt

in these areas flows into the Asian sub-continent

and is used for drinking, irrigation and sanitation,

so any reduction in glacier volumes as a

response to global warming is potentially of

concern. In addition, many glaciers here (and

other mountainous regions across the world) are

developing large glacial lakes at their termini,

dammed by poorly consolidated sediments that

can fail without warning. The resulting outburst

floods can travel for many kilometres

Dr Duncan Quincey

I have always loved the outdoors and in particular the mountains –

being a geographer is a great excuse for getting out and

about!

“ “ Meet the staff

5

Doha seems an unlikely place to hold a United

Nations conference negotiating an agreement on

climate change, but that’s where the world’s

nations gathered in December 2012 to try and

create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. A

modern city in the small state of Qatar, jutting out

into the Persian Gulf, it is immensely wealthy

with an economy built on oil. In 2022 it will also

be the first Arab nation to host the football world

cup: with summer daytime temperatures

exceeding 50 degrees Celsius and a ban on

alcohol.

Like football, climate change negotiations do not

follow normal logic. Despite being what leading

politicians have described as the most urgent

and pressing threat to the environment and

global economy, it seems impossible for the

community of nations to agree on even some of

Professor Jon Lovett - Negotiating climate change

downstream, threatening lives and livelihoods, so

it’s important to be able to identify where these

lakes are and how likely they are to fail.

Other than research I’m responsible for teaching

on several modules at undergraduate and

postgraduate level, and for overseeing the BSc

programmes within the School. I enjoy working

with our students and am about to begin a

project funded by the Higher Education Academy

in which I will be able to pay students to help

develop new tools for teaching employability and

entrepreneurship. Research-wise I am currently

seeking funding to work on Tibetan glaciers and

to quantify their response to warming in the

Himalayan region. Of course, that will require

ground validation, and another field season at

high-elevation. The things we have to do in the

name of science! Duncan’s homepage

Jon’s research focuses on the institutional economics of natural resource management and takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together both the natural and social sciences. He is interested in the links between local and international law and policy and the practical aspects of implementation of global agreements. Jon works in many different countries with recent projects in Nepal, Lebanon, Tanzania and Mexico.

6

the simplest components needed to put an

international treaty in place to limit dangerous

human interference with the planet’s climate

systems. In 1997 the United States of America,

then the world’s greatest producer of greenhouse

gases, refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol on the

grounds that it would not be part of any agreement

that would harm the economy of the USA or

contain the principle of common but differentiated

responsibilities, which exempted developing

countries from limiting their greenhouse gas

emissions. Subsequently, the exponential

economic growth of one of those developing

countries, China, enabled it to overtake the USA

in annual national emissions, with another

developing country, India, not far behind. The

once green Canada tore up its reputation as a

liberal environmentally-friendly northern neighbour

of the USA by exploiting its oil sand reserves and

withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011, with

the Minister of the Environment stating that

meeting Canada's obligations would cost £8.7bn,

"That's $1,600 from every Canadian family - that's

the Kyoto cost to Canadians, that was the legacy

of an incompetent Liberal government".

Agreement seems a long way away.

I was in Doha at the UNFCCC meeting to talk

about what appears to be another set of counter-

intuitive arguments in the mirror-land of climate

negotiations: the Porter Hypothesis, Eco-

Innovation and Energy for Africa. As the Canadian

Environment Minister pointed out, the general

perception is that combatting climate change is

going to cost money. But it can also be argued

that it is a great opportunity to make money. In the

early 1990s the Harvard business guru Michael

Porter put forward a strange idea: that

environmental legislation enhances

competiveness and innovation in industry. This

became known as the ‘Porter Hypothesis’ and

there was an outcry against it – the general

consensus was that environmental laws strangle

industry and impose excessive costs. However, in

the twenty years since it was originally proposed,

evidence is gathering in its favour. Lord Stern, in

his influential 2006 report on the economics of

climate change, talked about the potential for what

he called ‘eco-innovations’ and estimated markets

for low-carbon energy products

to be worth more $500bn per

year by 2050. In 2008 I carried

out a study for the Dutch

government on technology

markets and interviewed senior

industrialists about their vision.

They saw the future as green,

saying that we were moving into

an ecological age and had the

eco-technology ready to roll, but

they needed a level-playing field

with more, not less,

environmental legislation.

One of the most fertile market places for the new

technology is Africa. Long regarded as a continent

riven by conflict and diseases, African economies

are growing at unprecedented rates whilst the

western world flatlines. The demand for energy is

huge. Anyone who visits an African city soon

realises the shortfall with frequent ‘brown-outs’

and power cuts; and in rural areas there is just

simply no access to modern energy supplies. An

old marketing joke runs like this: ‘Two shoe

salesmen go to a village in Africa. The first calls

his company and says ‘no-one wears shoes here,

I’m coming home’; the second calls his company

and says ‘no-one wears shoes here, send as

many as you can’. The lack of energy in Africa

villages represents a major market opportunity.

With the cost of solar panels plummeting and

Bianca Jagger

7

technology such as concentrated solar power

moving into commercial use, the African sun

could provide both decentralised and grid power.

Other underdeveloped sources are geothermal

energy in the Rift Valley, with 14 gigawatts

potential of which less than 200 megawatts has

been developed. But the big one is hydropower.

Of the 1.834 terawatt-hours (TWh) a year

potential, only 5% has been utilised.

Moving Africa from a state of underdevelopment

to development through increasing supplies of

clean, green energy to enhance economic

growth is known as ‘tunnelling through the

Kuznet’s curve’, so called because theory

dictates that as countries develop they first

produce more pollution, and then less as they

become richer, in the form of an inverted ‘U’

shaped curve. But as might be expected, the

shift to a low carbon future is not so simple. Part

of the new wealth in Africa is driven by discovery

and exploitation of fossil fuels: offshore gas in

Tanzania and Mozambique, oil in Ghana and

Uganda. Mining also plays a significant role, and

in southern Africa energy for mining comes

from coal, with China investing in new coal-

fired power stations for mines in southern

Tanzania. Problems also arise in regional

power pooling of electricity from large

hydropower dams as national governments

are reluctant to commit to energy

dependence on neighbouring states. And in

an odd case, environmentalists protesting

over the controversial Gilgel Gibe III dam in

Ethiopia resulted in the government seeking

loans from China instead of international

banks, which have environmental

safeguards built in to their investments.

So what is the future? Lord Stern recently

announced at the World Economic Forum

in Davos that the risks and costs of global

warming are greater than he thought in

2006. The climate negotiations are mired in

disputes about definitions and categories,

and Africa, with the lowest green house gas

emissions globally is starting to build its

economies and energy demand. The good

news is that we have the technology and

national governments are increasingly putting in

place legislation that will stimulate low carbon

green business. The more that grows, the better

off we will all be.

Jon recently held a workshop at the University of

Leeds entitled Eco-innovation and The Porter

Hypothesis. Details of the workshop here.

Jon’s homepage

What is a MOOC?

A massive open online course (MOOC) is an

online course aimed at large-scale interactive

participation and open access via the web.

Leeds is starting a new era for online learning

by making the University’s inspirational and

research-led teaching freely available to

anyone around the world. The aim is to remove

barriers to learning by providing excellent

educational experiences to almost anyone who

wants to take a course, with no limit on

attendance and nothing to pay. This is

accomplished by combining mobile technology

and the best of the social web to make all

course materials (lectures, activities, reading,

discussions) online, engaging and accessible

for all. You fit the learning around your life and

interests, and can choose when and how much

to engage with the course content and other

learners taking the course.

We are working with FutureLearn, a private

company established on the open-learning

expertise of the Open University, partnered

with the British Library, the British Council, the

British Museum, 21 top UK universities, and

two International Partners. Their mission is to

inspire and enable everyone, everywhere to

enjoy learning by offering online courses from

some of the world’s best universities for free.

Our first course which is currently under

construction, will be run by Jon Lovett and is

about natural resource management. We will

be releasing details soon so if you are

interested please check the geography/

environment website for more details in the

autumn or register an interest with

FutureLearn: http://futurelearn.com/

Jon Lovett to run the University’s first MOOC

8

Even though I graduated with a first class degree, I

knew the job market would be very tough. I’d

decided not to apply for any graduate schemes the

year before and didn’t want to simply take the first

job I found. I was determined to work in the

sustainability sector so committed myself to

internships to show my dedication. My geography

degree taught me the meaning of hard work so it

didn’t take too long after completing a three-month

internship at Life Size Media for them to offer me a

full-time position as a Campaign Assistant.

Life Size Media is a creative campaigns agency

dedicated to promoting sustainable

innovators working in the low-carbon, clean tech

and sustainable development sectors. Like me,

Life Size Media started out during the economic

downturn when many people expected the green

economy to struggle. However, it just goes to

show that with the right skill set, passion and a

desire to succeed, they and I have proven that it’s

not all doom and gloom for young people.

What attracted me to Life Size Media was its

ability to bring sustainability to life through, and I

quote, using ‘intelligence and creativity’ for

‘storytelling with originality’. These could not sum

up more perfectly some of the most important

skills I learned throughout my geography degree.

Leeds really teaches its students to think about the

‘bigger picture’, developing excellent

analytical, research, organisational and

teamwork skills that are critical for

bringing new ideas to life. Little did I

know it, but by doing geography, I had

combined one of my strongest skills

(communication) with my biggest interest

(sustainability).

A module that really inspired and

prepared me for pursuing a career in the

sustainability sector was Paul

Chatterton’s Autonomous Geographies,

Sustainable Futures. Paul’s module

really encouraged us to think outside the

box and challenge the ‘business-as-

usual model’. He got us to write intuitive

essays, debate key issues, and write

about our experiences in a different way

to the usual uni essay.

We were asked to write a reflective log

on what we’d learned from the module

and the piece I wrote was in the style of

an article for the Leeds Student Newspaper titled:

‘The thoughts and feelings of a carbon addict’.

Being given the option to be more creative and

passionate with our writing meant I developed an

interest in exploring issues through engaging

writing. In the article, I came to the conclusion that

the best way to promote a sustainable future was

through making the environment a profitable

commodity so that people would invest, develop

and profit from its protection. It challenged me to

think about the green economy.

Who’d have thought that one year later I’d be

working for an agency that did just that: using

creative storytelling to engage multiple

stakeholders in the sustainability debate by

promoting sustainable innovators that look to

make a profit and make a positive difference.

I’m passionate about my work which reflects upon

what I learned at uni. I’ve worked on campaigns at

Life Size Media for clients ranging from a

bioplastics manufacturer to an LED supplier, a

polar explorer raising awareness about climate

change to a rainforest reserve in Borneo. My work

has included implementing social media

strategies, doing PR campaigns, creating

brochures and presentations, and developing

websites.

I really had no idea what to do when I left uni

other than wanting to work in sustainability. My

time at Leeds, from numerous field trips, to a year

spent abroad in Australia, to my inspiring tutors

and lecturers really is what got me here today. I

never really knew much about communications or

PR, but I think geographers are perfect for it, and I

owe it all to Leeds for helping me find my way onto

this exciting career path.

Fran Willby - Life Size Media BA Geography 2011

Where are they now?

Fran in Australia

9

Andy Jordan - Made in Chelsea BA Geography 2012

When Andy Jordan of Made in Chelsea fame

agreed to come and talk to our level 3 media

geography students we were ecstatic. E4’s

Made in Chelsea might not be everyone’s glass

of champagne, but production-wise you can’t

fault it. With a fabulous soundtrack, stylishly and

expertly shot, it is almost impossible not to be

drawn into the lives of the Über-posh as they

drink and sleep their way around the bars of

Belgravia and Chelsea.

For our media geography students it proved a

fascinating insight into the double life of a reality

TV star. Each cast member is assigned a

manager whose role is to dig deep into their

personal life and see how this can be woven into

the semi-scripted show. With it being TV of

course, everything has to happen at a much

faster pace, so declarations of love or lust can

seem uncomfortably rushed, and it’s difficult to

keep pace with the bed-hopping at times! You

can also guarantee the show will go all out to

dish the dirt should you ‘accidentally’ stray, so

onscreen surprise revelations are a constant

worry.

Nevertheless, for all the downsides of having

your private life stalked, scrutinised and scripted

by your employer, the perks are not to be sniffed

at. Andy talked of partying with Rihanna, endless

freebies from top designers and the BAFTA

nomination and win! As Francis Boulle aptly

stated ‘Who would have thought you could get a

BAFTA just for being posh?’

Look out for Andy’s latest exploits in series 6 on

E4 in the Autumn...

Who would have thought you could get a BAFTA

just for being posh? “

“

Francis Boulle, Made in Chelsea

Andy Jordan

10

It’s very unusual for any major UK retailer with a

network of stores not to have a Location Planning

function, either in-house or outsourced to a

specialist agency. That was the position,

however, that Morrisons found themselves in

when Neal Stevenson was asked to set the team

up from scratch in 2009. Neal, together with no

fewer than eight other Leeds geography

graduates, has built a team that is growing

quickly and is now firmly embedded in Morrisons

capital investment process.

Setting up Location Planning so late in the day

compared to our major competitors presented

Morrisons with some unique challenges, but also

some great opportunities to create systems and

data that weren’t defined by any past models.

Effectively we had a clean slate which meant we

could cherry pick the best systems, the best data

and the best methodologies throughout the

industry and this is moving us towards our aim of

being the best in the business!

The initial problem we had in setting up the team,

was that the data needed for any location

analysis was few and far between. Some key

datasets existed in various places throughout the

business but were often disparate and out of date

and no real analogue data existed. Competitor

location data was ‘off the shelf’ and often out of

date and incorrect and, because Morrisons don’t

have a loyalty card, customer data was scarce.

This obviously presented us with a real issue, as

trying to build any kind of analogue or gravity

model is always reliant upon this data.

The first thing we did was sort out our competitor

database. We now have a team of people who

make sure the information about existing

competitor stores and any new competitor

developments is as accurate as it can be. Sales

forecasting model building is about the balance of

supply and demand, so it’s key we know exactly

where our competitors are and how big they are.

We went through a huge exercise to make sure

this data was robust and, even now, we still

measure every store we visit and make sure our

data point is correct.

The next key challenge was building a robust

analogue database. Without this data being of

good quality, it is almost impossible to plan new

locations. We painstakingly pulled together

information about how big each store is, what

type of location it is and even detail such as what

type of car park it has and how many entrances

to the store there are. Once we had much of this

Back (from left) : Dave Codling, Yaz Dogan, Katy Ferguson, Helen Henderson, Neal Stevenson Front (from left): Katie Wright, Michelle Patterson, Stevie Brodley, David McCorquodale

Geography at Nine Leeds geography graduates have built a team that is growing quickly

and is now firmly embedded in Morrisons capital investment process.

This is their story...

11

data in place we were able to start to build a

gravity model, (a major tool developed practically

by geography staff at Leeds) and we took the

decision to do this in house rather than employ

an external agency. The main reason for doing

this is that it allows us to constantly develop our

thinking and the model evolves on an almost

daily basis.

We very quickly got to a place where we could

define our network strategy and confidently plan

new locations through a combination of the use

of our analogue data, gravity model forecasts

and detailed site visits which are crucially

important to understand the more micro factors

that will influence a store’s performance. Even

with the limited customer data we have, we are

consistently producing accurate sales forecasts

for our new store developments.

The great thing about our story is that in 30

years time when Location Planning in Morrisons

is as firmly embedded as it is today at our

competitors, everyone in the team will we able to

say “I was there – I did that!”.

At Morrisons, we never stand still, things are

constantly evolving and new challenges are

presented every day. Our new Fresh Format and

our rapidly expanding M Local chain are

providing us with many different and exciting

challenges, which allow us to develop new ways

of applying the skills we learned at Leeds

University. This creates a great learning

environment and a ‘One Team’ atmosphere

where personal development is at the forefront

of our thinking. Probably the biggest thing about

the developing team at Morrisons is that we are

creating history today.

Three of our Leeds graduates have been

promoted in their short time at Morrisons and

this goes a long way to highlighting the

opportunity for graduates within the business.

Over the last two years we have developed a

great relationship with the School of Geography,

and we have held Graduate Recruitment Days at

Weetwood Hall in Leeds which both resulted in

us employing a Leeds graduate!

Do you want to be part of writing the next

chapter in Morrisons Location Planning history?

Do you want to be able to say “I was there – I did

that!”? If so, we are always keen to hear from

people who are interested in a career in Location

Planning at Morrisons.

If you would like to be considered for our next

graduate recruitment day, please send your CV

to: neal.stevenson@morrisonsplc.co.uk.

Our Leeds History

Head of Location Planning: Neal Stevenson MSc GIS 2003-2006 (Distinction) Location Planning Managers: Helen Henderson PGDip GIS 2005-2006 (Distinction) Stevie Brodley BA Geog & Bus Mgmt 2006-2010 (2:1) David McCorquodale BA Geography 2004-2007 (2:1) Location Planning Analysis Manager: Dave Codling Maths 1986-1989 (2:1) Mech Eng PhD 1989-2005 Location Planning Analysts: Katy Ferguson BA Geography 2007-2010 (2:1) Michelle Patterson BA Geography 2008-2011 (1

st)

Yaz Dogan MSc GIS 2011-2012 (2:1) Junior Location Planning Analyst: Katie Wright BSc Geography 2007-2010 (2:1)

Geography at

12

Luckily there was enough room for both of us

geographers here in Brisbane and a full-on fist

fight was avoided. A few months later, we arrived

at Heathrow to embark on our journey together,

praying that the exam results that were due to be

released the next day, when we would be in

Singapore, were good enough so that we didn’t

have to turn around and come straight back home.

Thankfully, all was well, and eight months on we

are settled, happy and have some great

experiences under our belt. These are just a few

snippets from our own personal experiences so far

this year.

Amy King

For a small town girl who saw Leeds

as a big city and had scarcely crossed

beyond English borders, flying to the

other side of the world to live and

spend months travelling, much of it

alone, was a bit of a jump. It’s hard to

pick out from a year full of incredible

experiences the individual highlights,

so I have thought instead about how

lots of accumulated experiences have

made a difference to me, firstly, as a

person and, secondly, to my future

career.

Of course, when people go on

adventures like I have had this year,

they change as a person. The

determination it took to get through the first weeks

in Australia trying to build everything in our lives

from scratch was one big step, and travelling a

month through both North and South New Zealand

completely alone was another I could mention.

Both have taught me that the things you fear and

stress about in life are really not worth fussing

over; there is little you can’t get through if you just

have a go. The belief in myself and my own

abilities that I have built has led to me dreaming of

newer, bigger challenges for the future, and not

having to think twice about whether I could really

do them. I know I can.

I came to Australia without a plan for what I would

do beyond graduation. Now I know I want to

continue on in research, and I would like to do so

in other universities around the world so I can

continue to explore things that might be out of

reach for a student in the UK.

The first experience that sparked this was a field

trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef to

study the geology of coral reefs. As we

approached the island by boat, I was met by the

bluest, clearest waters, whitest sands, and most

abundant plant and animal life above and below

water that I have

ever seen. We

worked until we

dropped most days,

out on the reef

collecting transect

A study year down under! We sit writing this article on the veranda of our Queenslander house, overlooking the pool with a cuppa in hand despite the 30o heat (you can take the girls out of England...) It seems like an age ago that we were sat outside the study abroad office, nervously waiting for our placement interviews, sheepishly introducing ourselves to each other and realizing we were both applying to the same university.

Amy Bell feeding a kangaroo

Franz Josef Glacier, NZ

13

data, sediment samples, and analysing in the lab.

And of course, taking part in the compulsory

snorkelling of incredible reef sites every day!

Never in a week-long trip have I developed such

an understanding of the biological and physical

interactions in the natural world, combined with a

clear understanding of the process of change in

nature, over both geological and modern

timescales. Things I had learnt whilst sitting in the

lecture theatres in Leeds began to click, and really

mean something.

This led me to sign up for a summer research

scholarship offered by the University of

Queensland. I worked with two lecturers at the

university to visit and investigate the Snowball

Earth deposits of Tasmania and King Island,

sampling transects through the diamictite/cap

carbonate transition to analyse carbon and oxygen

isotopes for both dating purposes and exploring

spatial variation of these values over the same

boundary. I’ve been working on a virtual field

guide for the trip, and spent a dedicated number of

hours sawing and drilling rocks down in the labs!

An experience of the real process of research,

from beginning to end…this is what I want to do.

Whilst travelling Australia, New Zealand,

Tasmania and Vanuatu I have experienced new

cultures, seen incredible natural wonders, become

a Scuba Diver, beach volleyball player and

swimmer, the point of my studies has all clicked

together, I have met incredible people and made

so many new friends from all over the world, and I

now know what I want to do with my future. Not

bad for a year.

Amy Bell

The morning of the study abroad deadline had

arrived and I was still in two minds about whether

or not to submit the application I’d prepared. The

thought of missing out on an entire year with all of

my friends in Leeds seemed like the end of the

world, but with a tab

containing a Google

image search of

‘Australian beaches’

sat open, I

submitted my

application against

all of my doubts. A

year later I feel like a

fully fledged Aussie, surfing and sunbathing while I

hear reports of inches of snow at home, and I

wonder why I ever considered not applying for

study abroad.

I won’t lie, boarding the plane at Heathrow was

terrifying. As excited as I was, I couldn’t help

repeatedly thinking ‘what on earth have I done?’

How was I going to cope for a whole year without

Fruity and Greggs sausage rolls? Luckily, I had

three other students from Leeds to travel with and

a bunch more waiting at the hostel at the other

end which helped to settle my nerves – it’s always

nice to have a familiar face on the other side of the

world!

It’s predominantly thanks to the friendly people of

Brisbane that we settled in so quickly. There were

a fair few times that we had to be rescued by

strangers who had witnessed us on the street

staring perplexedly at a map or wondering out

loud ‘are we going in the wrong direction?’ I also

think the nature of Brisbane as a place played a

big part. It’s an incredibly liveable city, with lots to

do, a great location and a laidback attitude. Within

a few weeks we’d found a house right

next to UQ with a pool (we’d thought

that was a mere pipedream!), joined a

bunch of societies including QUEST (the

infamous society for international

students) and the Beach Volleyball

society, been to a rugby match, cuddled

a koala and finally started lectures and

tutorials. It’s great to get to know

Brisbane as a resident rather than just

visiting it as a tourist; a combination of a

network of Australian friends, a part-time

job in a cafe and new hobbies such as

volleyball and surfing has really helped

me to feel part of the local community.

From the point of view of a human

geographer I have really enjoyed the

academic side of my study abroad year,

as geography here at UQ is quite different to that

at Leeds, having a strong physical focus. It has

given me a chance to broaden my degree and

study a really varied set of modules, which I’m

very grateful for as now I will have a degree which

encompasses both approaches to geography. UQ

is also great in that it offers modules that I

wouldn’t get a chance to do anywhere else in the

world. I have just finished a course on the subject

of Australia’s terrestrial environment and I am now

taking one focussing on the marine side of things,

which means that I’m gaining an in depth

knowledge of where I’m living – not to mention the

amazing field trips. So far I’ve been to local

rainforests and National Parks, the Sunshine

Coast and Fraser Island and I am excitedly

anticipating a week-long trip to the Great Barrier

Reef—a bit different to Boggle Hole!

As well as field trips we’ve tried to make the most

of weekends to travel the local area to places like

Stradbroke Island, and we fully exploited the long

university holidays to travel further afield. As

someone who hadn’t been out of Europe until I

boarded the flight to Brisbane, this year has been

a great opportunity to visit places I’d never thought

I’d get the chance to go. Mid-semester break lent

itself nicely to a road trip up the east coast of

Australia to Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and

Cape Tribulation, thankfully without breaking down

in the midst of the outback and being mauled by a

rogue kangaroo. The majority of the group from

Leeds stayed in Australia for Christmas which was

a particularly unusual experience. There’s

A study year down under!

Leeds gang at the rugby match

Stradbroke Island

14

something not quite right about wearing a

summer dress and sandals while putting up a

Christmas tree and watching Home Alone in 40

degree heat.

Despite the fear that a heat-induced death was

upon us, we powered through and cooked a full

Christmas roast complete with mince pies and

mulled wine. As if anything needs mulling when

it’s this hot and humid. Real Christmas day was

spent with the entire Leeds gang in Sydney. But

don’t think it was the ideal Aussie Christmas

enjoying beers and a barbecue on the beach – in

true English fashion it rained all day so instead,

the day was spent eating, drinking and playing

games.

Then, because you can’t be in Australia for New

Years Eve and not spend it in Sydney, we all

watched the famous fireworks before going our

separate ways. I travelled to Adelaide and

Melbourne, where we watched the Australian

open, before buying a tent, hiring a car and

conquering the Great Ocean Road.

The next three weeks were spent travelling

around New Zealand, which is without a doubt

the most amazing place I’ve ever been; it

involved going against all of my natural instincts

and sky diving 15,000ft over Lake Taupo,

something I thought I’d never be able to do.

Then I ended the best trip of my life with a week

island-hopping in Fiji – a large proportion of

which was spent having to remind myself that I

was actually there and not just looking at photos

in a holiday brochure. The phrase ‘life has

peaked’ was used multiple times during the trip.

Without a doubt there have been some points in

the year that have been tough – we do have to

do some work and there have been several

times when I’ve missed Yorkshire Tea and my

mum’s Sunday dinner. But at times like these, I

look around and remind myself that things could

be worse.... I could be sat at home in the snow

writing a dissertation, and suddenly things don’t

seem so bad anymore! I know it’s cliché but it’s

true - this has without a smidgeon of a doubt

been one of the best years of my life and I can’t

even imagine how much I’d regret it if I hadn’t

submitted my application that day!

Finding Lost Friends

How do I get back in touch with people from my course?

If you have lost touch with friends from your course

the first place to look for them is on the on-line

networking database at www.alumni.leeds.ac.uk.

If the people that you are looking for are not on the

database you can email Tessa Grant. If we have

details for the person concerned, we will contact them

on your behalf and ask them to get in touch with you. Follow us on facebook

Leeds crew in Caloundra post first surfing lesson

15

I have long envied those with the foresight to

plan a career. I had enjoyed a rather more

eclectic experience; iron foundry, metal plating

chemist, cable railway operator, boat handler,

forester, milk pipeline constructor, barman,

critical path analyst, rag works labourer and

much, much more. So keeping to this style I had

applied for six entirely different university

courses – in forestry, astronomy, metallurgy; I

forget the others…but I finished as an ecologist/

resource manager surprised by the first class

degree.

Invited to take on a PhD (no application required

just swing with the tide) I found myself in a fine

room with 50km views over Edinburgh, Arthur’s

Seat and the extinct volcanoes of east Lothian. It

came as a surprise then to arrive in Leeds (a

phone call from the school ….I had not applied;

just swing with….) as a lecturer to a tiny room in

the basement below the gents and with a view of

perhaps five metres! I would not be here long.

This flowing with the current would stop! That

was 1972.

I discovered two things that first day; first that

lots of the students were women – four of the

soon-to-be final year girls asked if I wanted

coffee - well my ‘new ‘office was also opposite

the kitchen, and second that Leeds was a very

friendly department -several staff stopped by to

chat and the Head of School (a proper Head of

School mind you – appointed forever - none of

this election rubbish!), Bill Birch, proposed lunch.

No, or little, signing of forms, briefings, health

and safety, what to do in the case of a nuclear

attack etc., – all the standard things now.

Information ‘emerged’. On that first day five

dissertations arrived on my desk for marking. I

remember thinking that I had no inkling of the

possible contents (I had not even an ‘O’ level in

geography) but I expected the mapping and

drafting to be exemplary – I was wrong. Now it

feels like that same day, but it might have been

on the second day, that I was told what I would

be teaching: the alumni of the 70s and 80s will

remember resource analysis, natural resource

systems, and the like. It was much the same

teaching load as I would have for years – no

reduced loads for new staff in them there days,

quite the opposite I suspect.

It was a period of great change – Ken Atkinson,

Jim Hogg and I arrived in the same month, Alan

Wilson a couple of years before, Phil Rees the

previous year and Mike Kirkby was to arrive a

few months later. A substantial addition to the

ten or so staff then in place. But of course the

BSc intake was about 12 and the BA about 30.

Small in retrospect but huge then in my mind – I

had been an undergraduate in a year of six, so

Leeds classes of 40; well it was mass education!

They were a great staff and in my view the

students got a great deal. Great staff but very

confusing….let me confess and explain

anonymously. Lecturer x was married to lecturer

y but retained different names and I was

unaware of their marital status. I was invited to

dinner at the home of lecturer z and his wife. Zed

mentioned that the Ys were the neighbours. The

next day I had cause to phone lecturer Y at

home – a lady answered, clearly Ys wife whom I

had not (I thought) met and she greeted me like

an old friend. Who could this be – well it could

only be Zs wife, the neighbour? My confusion

increased with the reply “Ah Yes Adrian I will get

Y, we were still in bed!” I remember thinking: –

‘Play it cool – this is liberal England – none of the

Scottish Presbyterian limitations here.’ It was

years later that I discovered I had been speaking

to my colleague X married to Y.

Over the years I wriggled out of the basement

cell and, some rooms later, finished on the

ground floor in a room with a view – at grass

level – but importantly next door to the Head of

School’s room. Now in those days the staff

meeting was (more or less) academic staff only

and was held monthly on a Wednesday

afternoon starting at 2.00pm. Bill Birch liked

agreements to ‘emerge’ as a consensus as long

as it was the agreement he wanted in the first

place. The technique was to allow the discussion

to continue until, perhaps by chance, the debate

stumbled upon the conclusion Bill sought at

which point of ‘consensus’, discussion closed.

Staff meetings could take hours. How we sought

to guess the required outcome. I discovered that

the outcome had been more or less agreed

before staff meeting in a chat in Bill’s room next

to mine, which, with the aid of a tall beer glass, I

could glean the answer necessary to give us a

chance of getting home before the kids were in

bed! All I had to do then was to seed the

outcomes in conversations over lunch and others

would do the ‘discovery’. Of course my wife

simply said – ‘you didn’t!’ – then said – ‘they

probably knew you listened and moved against

the wall for the more obscure conclusions they

wanted you to hear’!

Those were days in which there were few

support staff and much of the administration was

done by academics. Finance by Fred Fowler

(Chief of Staff to Admiral, he liked things ship-

shape) Bill Birch and Johnny Palmer who could

condense the year’s finance plan onto a sheet of

paper – well an envelope really, well a used

envelope actually. Gordon Dickinson who simply

knew every course in the University that was

available in first year, what the entry requirement

was, what it led on to and how it timetabled.

I worked with Gordon for a decade and for many

undergraduates I suppose Gordon and I were

the first university staff they saw. I was the one

always consulting the other one –“this chap has

A levels in geography, history and philosophy

and wants to do a course in planetary physics!”

Gordon was the one who found the course. Style

by Bob Eyre, lecturing clad in academic gown

always, and the person who introduced me to

wine – Gevrey Chambertin – which I could ill

afford. I said earlier – few support staff – but they

were in a class hard to equal. Gordon Bryant –

Professor Adrian McDonald (or should that be Cameron Macintosh?!) retired from the School in 2012 and looks back on 30 years of fun, fieldwork and friendships.

Reflections

16

then know as chief

technician, but today

probably as the

‘Director of All Things’

– and for the students

the man who said

firmly ‘get your feet off

the chairs!’. Gordon

was to teach me to

fish. Tim Hadwin,

then the young

draughtsman, later

Faculty Manager, was

always perceptive and

helpful. Tim attempted to further my golf – not so

perceptive then!

A dreadful confession to make here – I enjoyed

the lecturing. And in many ways the students and

research students make the job worthwhile and

memorable. Mike Sanderson – measuring

dissolved oxygen using a probe that looked like

two sticks of explosive on the end of a cable and

dangling this in the small hours of the night from

Leeds Bridge at the height of the IRA bombing

campaign; the result being the phone call from the

police asking if I could vouch for this possible

terrorist. Dave Kay, now Prof Kay, with boundless

energy appearing at 7.30 every Tuesday morning

at my house ready for a day in the field brings

three memories – the first that we tossed a coin to

decide who got to have their hands in their

pockets for the last half hour having learned that

otherwise we were both too cold to open the van

door, the second, the threatening nature of the

underside of Blackpool pier when we and the

upturned boat are getting swept under it with a

final year student saying, rather late in the day, ‘I

cant swim by the way!’, the third the entire sweet

shop jar of sweets that Dave brought my kids –

they remain in awe to this day several decades

later. Colin Hunter, now Prof Hunter, with a field

site on the most impossible slippery, steep slope

– how many times I finished at the bottom! Alan

Jenkins, now Prof Jenkins, with his patented gut

buster for sucking the bacteria from the river

bottom and in so doing created mystery for

walkers in the Washburn Valley – can’t see his

dignity, style and sharp suit allowing that sort of

thing now! Apologies to the other 50 PhDs – your

time will come.

As many readers might recall I have always had

close working, and indeed personal relations, with

the water industry (personal I mean in terms of

friends rather than immersions although those

have happened!). I can’t really recall how they

started but I think it was the need for an

undergraduate exercise. I had decided that the

students would calculate water demand by

household type – the nice cross over between

applied human and physical geography that I had

always liked. So I phoned and visited ‘Claro

Water, Craven Water, Halifax Water’ etc – yes its

going back a bit and got the flows into small

defined areas – and that’s how I first met all the

local water companies. The students determined

from air photographs the proportions of housing

types in each supply area and we finished with a

series of equations which we solved using a

‘programmable calculator’ since PCs did not exist

and you ate ‘apples’. It was nearly 20 years later

(when asked to do demand calculations for the

water companies) that I realised that the

undergraduates had been doing really ground

breaking work.

Links to the water companies across the UK and

indeed beyond grew as did my admiration for the

people in the industry and it is a real delight for

me to meet Leeds graduates – new and old – in

many water plcs and some in top ‘Board’

positions. For 20 plus years we have had lectures

in Leeds from Bob Lloyd, Izzy Caffoor, Miles

Foulger, etc., explaining the real questions and

challenges that the companies face. It’s also been

interesting to link up lots of my geography BA

colleagues with the companies – Sir Alan, Martin

C., Graham C., Pete B., etc. have all contributed

to the water industry. I have often been asked to

speak on how to establish links with industry –

well of course you have to see the real objectives

and try to get solutions that are financially viable,

legally defensible and scientifically credible but it

really comes down to the ‘3Ts’ talent, track record

and above all trust.

My last ‘reflection’ is on field trips. Here I will be

brief as there is another contribution by a fictitious

Professor Cameron Macintosh in this very edition.

I came from a tradition that had fieldwork every

week and major field trips every year and I came

to realise that it was only in the field that you

really understood the complexity of the subject.

Field work is fun, fraught and (un) forgettable

(trying to keep the alliteration going here!) and we

are lucky in Leeds to have had over the years,

excellent field teachers – Mike Kirkby, Bob Eyre,

John Stillwell, Richard Smith jump immediately to

mind. Let us not dwell on John Lockwood’s forest

fire raising in an attempt to track wind currents on

Ben Lomond, John Stillwell’s loss of half the

students in the Garrigue (sorry John I really

thought you were joking!), the icy cold of the

Scottish national camps venues in Aberfoyle and

West Linton or, worst of all, having the unfeeling

lecturer have you working over the Saturday of

the Cup Final – has Martin Clarke forgiven me?

The staff share such hazards – think of John

Lockwood falling horizontal to the floor from an

upper bunk and still asleep, trying to get back into

bed - with Mike Kirkby. My own broken ribs the

result of an ambitious dance routine and an ill

defined night-club stage edge! My hope is that

even in these economically difficult times

fieldwork will continue. It’s the place where we

really get to know our students and they us.

The Washburn Valley

17

Macintosh loved France, and this was his favourite

time of day at his favourite time of year. France

seemed to touch every sense. The Easter

sunshine in the Languedoc was comfortingly warm

as he walked in the early sunshine while the

shadows were refreshingly cool. At shortly before

ten in the morning the smell of France was in

transition. Coffee, croissants and hot chocolate

lingered in the air but were mingling with, and

soon to be overpowered by, the smells of lunch.

The first rows of chickens were starting to bubble

on the rotisseries, the béchamel sauces to brown

on the croques monsieur.

Macintosh plodded past the flower market which,

for 40 yards, gave a display of colour and scent

and shape that normally brought intense

happiness to him but which today could not dispel

the feeling of gloom. Even his most favourite sight,

flocks of elegant sophisticated boutique owners

and assistants busy with the morning ritual of

washing shop windows and pavements and

hopping on one foot, arm outstretched to avoid

dripping water on their crisp blouses, did not cheer

him. He failed even to take in the slightly tight

skirts and the neat blouses that struggled to

contain attractive figures during these acrobatic

cleansing displays.

Professor Macintosh plodded on through the

streets of this old town, his feet taking him to the

Préfecture, his mind wanting him to be anywhere

but that place. The two policemen guarding the

Préfecture seemed to look straight through him.

No smile, no glance, no questions. Macintosh had

hoped that they would stop him, question him,

delay him, perhaps even turn him away, but no.

Still, he comforted himself with French

bureaucracy. It would probably be an hour till

anyone could see him and any interview would not

last beyond lunch time. He walked up to the

reception ready to sit down and was ushered

straight through.

He found himself in the office of what he judged to

be the Head of the Administration of Public

Buildings. The horrors of the previous evening

were put to him from the French viewpoint. There

seemed no opportunity to refute the tale, nor any

basis from which to do so. Soon he found the

process being repeated in a much grander room

and in much more detail. Only this time there were

'witnesses'. Since at least one 'witness' had

already given his testimony Macintosh was

hopeful, erroneously as it turned out, that he too

was simply there as a 'witness' and not destined

for the 'dock'.

A gendarme had just finished giving his version of

events. Macintosh thought him very reasonable,

measured, professional, and Macintosh found

himself staring at the enormously oversized

hands. Each finger it seemed individually

wrapped, swathed even, in bandages. From at

least two fingers of each hand protruded tiny

splints, rather like lollipop sticks. But it was not the

hands that took Macintosh back to the events of

the previous night, it was the hat, the kepi, navy

blue, shining brim, mounted with military precision,

square on the head. But Macintosh reasoned the

kepi should be crushed almost beyond

recognition. He had seen it being crushed the

previous evening.

For many years Macintosh had led a party of

students each spring to this contented secure

medieval city. The students had stayed in a form

of civic youth hostel on the edge of the old town

and in some years had camped on the outskirts of

the town. The staff on the other hand, had always

stayed at the Grand Hotel du Midi about half a

mile away. They rationalised this among

themselves by arguing that it gave the students

Reflections This is fiction. The characters and events are fictional. If there is any reality, it is exaggerated, derived from unrelated events, ill remembered and crudely spliced together. It never happened and we were never there!

Reflections

Adrian on a less fraught Montpellier fieldtrip!

18

independence to deal with minor issues in a

foreign land and that the staff did not want to be

thought to be mothering these young adults. Staff

and students all knew that this was self deception

but both sides liked the outcome.

It was at the Hotel du Midi at about midnight that

he had received a call “demanding his immediate

and urgent attendance" at the civic youth hostel

"because of problems with the students". Past

experience had told him and his colleagues that

the breakage of a cup and saucer was a crisis in

the eyes of the hostel staff but even so they

seldom phoned at this time of night.

Macintosh, a younger colleague, James Wilmott,

and an older colleague, Peter Franks made their

way unhurriedly through the Old Town. A

hundred yards from the hostel the rhythmic

flickering of blue and red lights on the stonework

of the narrow streets reinforced the feeling of

apprehension that had been created by the

wailing car horns. “Looks like something's

happened on the inner ring road” said Macintosh,

leaving unsaid the 'hope it’s nothing to do with

our students'. Wilmott wandered off, as Wilmott

would, down to look at the chaos on the main

road. Franks and Macintosh turned right up the

even narrower dead-end side street, an impasse,

that led to the youth hostel and looked in some

horror at the crowds watching the antics of a

group consisting of local gendarmes and of

several rough looking members of the

Compagnie Republicaine de Securité, the French

state riot police.

Neither academic felt moved at that point to

identify themselves. Squeezing further into the

narrow impasse, Macintosh, balanced on a

concrete bollard, got a good view of the courtyard

and there saw a gendarme standing on top of a

wheeled industrial waste bin, hands inside the

window frame of a first floor window ready to

heave himself into the building. Time stood still

as Macintosh saw the outline of Angela Perkins,

a straight laced student from Hull, marching

across the room to put the shadowy figure of the

gendarme firmly in his place as a warped,

perverted French assailant, and she slammed

the heavy wood-framed windows firmly on the

would be intruders fingers. As the large wheelie

bin toppled to one side showering its contents on

several Agents de Police, trapped in the narrow

confines of the courtyard, the gendarme atop the

bin, toppled sideways, landing luckily on a large

cardboard box on which he had placed, for safe

keeping, his immaculate kepi. Macintosh saw it

now, crushed to a flattened remnant of its former

glory. This could not be the same kepi that was

before him now in the Prefecture office.

"Well over 70,000 francs". The words brought

Macintosh back to the present. "How exactly did

you arrive at that figure?" Macintosh enquired

politely as he stalled for time to think and tried to

stop his voice betraying the panic he felt. "It is a

first estimate, Monsieur, of the damages to the

roofs and surrounding areas"

Macintosh was trying hard not to

blanch, twitch and externally show signs

that his thoughts were turning to

disgrace and dismissal. "I recognise my

students may have been responsible for some of

the damages but you have to understand that

they were only defending a young lady's honour

in the face of a threat of attack by parties

unknown."

It sounded pretty lame to Macintosh as well and

judging by the glances between the various

people in the room it had not struck a major

chord with them. Macintosh continued. "There

were clearly two sides to this situation. It would

be reasonable for me to demand from my

students perhaps half the moneys but it would be

up to the French authorities to pursue those other

people who were involved."

A long animated conversation ensued between

the various representatives of the police, the

préfecture, house-owners and the many other

people who seemed to be in the room and whose

purpose Macintosh could not place. Professor

Cameron Macintosh was in no doubt whatsoever

that the whole trouble stemmed from two people,

the deaf concierge and Drusilla Haughty. Drusilla

was a perfectly pleasant student. She just had

one problem. She couldn't seem to keep her

clothes on!

A year off to repeat first year had not acted as a

restraint upon her and piecing together the story

about the recent calamitous events late the

previous evening and early this morning,

Macintosh had realised that Drusilla was once

again in her Lady Godiva persona. She had

apparently, as part of the general high jinx, slid

down a laundry chute. Did the girl have no

foresight? Might parts of the laundry chute have

been wood with possible splinters, or metal with

sharp joins and small bolt heads? Macintosh

imagined this had not crossed Drusilla's mind, as

she had flung her more than ample self down the

laundry chute to emerge three floors below into a

large laundry basket in the outer courtyard.

She had apparently shouted, hammered on the

door, but neither she below, nor the students

above, could raise the concierge. Come to think

of it, Macintosh himself had no idea where the

concierge would be found. So apparently the

bold Drusilla had walked out of the tiny impasse

and down the narrow street that led to the edge

of the old town. She had turned right and walked

for few yards along the pavement of what served

as an inner ring road lying below the walls of the

Old Town, and there had started to climb

scaffolding which led to the roofs which were

being repaired. Her intention, she had claimed,

was simply to return to the hostel via the open

upper balcony windows. Now the French are

known for their sang froid, particularly in the

South of France. And Drusilla seemed to imagine

that the sight of a 22 year old woman naked as

the day she was born, climbing up the scaffolding

somewhere around 11 o'clock at night would

attract no attention whatsoever. Strangely it

appeared that this had not been the case!

The road that ran for most of the length of the

original walls of the Old Town had in recent years

been converted to one-way traffic and Professor

Macintosh used to explain it to his students as 'a

route which functions as an inner ring road'. The

road had three lanes of traffic and swept in a long

right hand bend to join the curve of the old walls

at almost exactly the point where Drusilla had

been scaling the scaffolding. Macintosh could

only surmise the situation that must have

developed, but like most academics he had a

lively imagination. He saw the nubile young lady

captured in the headlights of three columns of

cars as they approached the bend. Some of the

drivers, he imagined, were captivated and forgot

the bend. Others turned the bend but kept their

eyes on Drusilla. Some continued at the same

pace, whilst others braked the better to observe

the event. Some probably changed lanes, whilst

others did not. But from the ensuing carnage,

Macintosh deduced that all of these things took

place without reference to the actions of nearby

road users. Of course young Doctor Wilmott was

exaggerating when he said dozens of vehicles

had been damaged on the road. There could not

have been more than one dozen, Macintosh

thought, unless of course young Doctor Wilmott

was counting the aftermath of the car that

unfortunately went through the motorcycle and

motocyclette showroom window and embedded

He saw the nubile young lady captured in the headlights of three columns of cars as

they approached the bend. Some of the drivers, he imagined, were captivated

and forgot the bend.

“ “

19

itself in the first line of those wonderful tiny

engined semi-bicycles that the French youth love.

Mind you there had been almost no complaint

about the damaged cars. Macintosh admired the

French attitude towards their vehicles. Scratched,

dented and functional seemed to be the order of

the day. He reflected on the weeping that would

have occurred in England had a small scratch

been inflicted on the prized and regularly washed

Rover. Apparently many of the Frenchmen had

simply abandoned their cars and started up the

scaffolding after Drusilla. Lust, Macintosh

assumed, having got the better of them.

As Drusilla made her way across the roof, many

of her student friends had come out of the

balcony windows and out of the attic windows to

defend her honour. Using the tiles handily piled

round the roof as part of the roof repairs, the two

sides had refought Agincourt at roof level. Pottery

tiles sometimes behaving like Frisbees had sailed

across the night sky and, occasionally and most

unfortunately, had sailed through some of the

windows across the street, causing their owners

to phone the police and to explain that a riot was

occurring on the rooftops.

On arrival and on being confronted with a large

number of wrecked cars, a blocked inner ring

road, horns hooting, irate neighbours, the sound

of 40-50 people fighting a pitched battle on the

rooftops and a moderate rain of whole and broken

tiles showering down upon them, the local police

had called the Compagnie Republicaine de

Securité, the riot police. Agincourt had fizzled out

on the arrival of a bus load of these rough-looking

characters and indeed Macintosh understood that

in a great show of European co-operation a

number of the opposing side were housed in the

Hostel to avoid detention by the CRS.

It was to gain access to the Hostel in the face of

the deaf concierge, that the gendarme had risked

his fingers. Actually, it had been Macintosh who

had finally gained entry into the Youth Hostel, he

thought. Well, to be more exact, he had

encouraged his colleague Franks to scale the

wheelie-bin and to speak with the female student

now held in some awe by the French police, as a

modern day Boadicea. Franks had kept well clear

of the window whilst explaining the situation and

access had finally been gained to a now entirely

dormant Hostel by kind permission of Miss

Angela Perkins.

The door of the Mayor's office opened and an

extremely attractive young lady entered in a

sophisticated beige-green suit with remarkably

short skirt, hair pulled back and delicately made

up. Macintosh felt his mouth begin to gape. The

conversation slowed and the room quietened and

Macintosh found himself thinking that if this was

the effect in France, imagine what would happen

in her home town of Hull. For this was Miss

Angela Perkins, Boadicea of the East Riding,

defender of virtue and tranquillity.

"I've come to thank you" she said "on behalf of

us all for the work that you did to defend us from

those rioters" She continued ''I don't know what

we would have done without.........", her voice

caught, she turned, evidently distraught and

stared for a moment or two at the hands of the

gendarme. Her hand flew to her mouth.

Macintosh thought it well worth an Oscar. "Oh

your poor hands" she exclaimed '“ didn't know, I

thought you were another of the rioters trying to

force your way in. I was terrified. And it will take

weeks for your hands to recover ...... and you

were so brave."

Macintosh was beginning to lose the thread, as

Macintosh often did. He didn't realise that Miss

Angela Perkins’ French could be so fluent. He

picked out words about height and darkness and

all alone and courage and professionalism and

honour. The gendarme appeared to be behaving

more and more like Peter Sellers. "Madame, my

hands will be fine in a few days, it was nothing,"

Macintosh recalled that it was only 20 minutes

ago that he'd been told that the gendarme would

be off work for weeks. Miss Perkins smiled

sweetly at the gendarme. "I'll speak with you

later" she said, squeezing his shoulder. His pink

blushing face was set off rather nicely by the blue

uniform, thought Macintosh, and then froze as

Miss Angela Perkins sidled by him. "I've gathered

£30 from everyone" she said in a whisper out of

the corner of her mouth. "We've got 15,000 francs

altogether. How much are we looking for?"

"Three times that at least" said Macintosh.

"Leave it to me" said Miss Angela Perkins.

"As you know" she began, fluent again, to

address the room "We had to hold off the rioters

until you could summon your forces." Macintosh

stared. What was she talking about? The last

war again? "I know those rioters caused a great

deal of damage, but I'm sure you'll find and

apprehend them and then charge them for all the

damages that they created. I think a Spanish tour

bus was involved." Some heads nodded and at

least half the people in the room took up the pose

of experienced resistance members, although all

were too young to have ever fulfilled this role.

"Nevertheless" she continued, "we were

responsible for some of the damage whilst

defending ourselves and we insist on paying our

share. It would only be honourable. I have 15,000

francs here, it’s all the money we have."

The atmosphere was changing dramatically.

There was some guilty shuffling, mixed with eager

anticipation of real money. "Oh that's quite

unnecessary' said the Maire. Miss Perkins barely

had time to say "Oh but I insist" as the Maire's

assistant swept the envelope from the table and

Miss Angela Perkins swept into her endgame. "I

want to put on record, formally, our

gratitude.......efficient .........rapid......averted

disaster ............ resolved crisis ............. ."

Faces were now smiling round the room. God

help us, thought Macintosh, if she ever gets on

Senate. Coffee appeared, Miss Angela Perkins

was speaking to the gendarme, mutual difficulties

were recognised and the affair drew to a close.

Miss Perkins and Macintosh left the room or to be

more exact Miss Perkins swept from the room

leaving a radiant smile behind and taking

Macintosh on her arm. She squeezed his hand

encouragingly and somehow Macintosh felt that

his elevated position and authority might never be

the same again, certainly not in Hull!

20

I’ve always enjoyed introducing students to

understanding a city by taking them to see it for

themselves, helping them to interpret the

structures and to gain an appreciation of how the

city comes to function in the way that it does.

Now I’d like to extend this and take ‘urban field

trips for grown ups’: to guide small groups of

travellers round interesting cities, enabling them

to combine a holiday with an opportunity to learn

about a city.

So it would be quite different from a typical ‘city

break’, just wandering in wonderment, snapping,

snacking and shopping. Instead, the participants

would learn how the city developed, what makes

it tick today and how it’s adapting to the

challenges of the twenty-first century. You would

hear the stories that lie beneath the surface,

behind the façades and the marketing. What are

the problems, tensions and vulnerabilities that

characterise this place in addition to the palaces,

monuments and parks?

Green tourism

Some of you will also remember my ‘urban

environments’ module and you’d expect that I’d

aim to run these trips so that the benefits to the

city and the visitors are maximised while negative

impacts are minimised: we’d aim to add to the

economy, take away learning and ideas (and a

few local products) but tread lightly and take

sustainability more seriously than just that thing

about not having your bath towel laundered every

day. We’d go to lesser known places and explore

ways to minimise wasteful and waste-generating

or exploitative consumption. We’d meet key

public, private sector and community figures such

as land use planners, officers in charge of major

elements of social and environmental policy,

developers involved in regeneration projects,

organisers of social enterprises, community

Fieldtrips for grown ups! If you were a BA student, you’ll have memories of your field trip to Montpellier, Trieste, Helsinki or even Tokyo – a mixture of pleasant and slightly blurred ones, perhaps?

Beside the Adriatic on the Trieste field trip, April 2004. Were you there?

Exploring less well-known places: Muggia, Venetian port near Trieste

City Journeys

21

leaders and activists. Less could be more: you’d

gain a much deeper understanding of the place

than if you went on a ‘luxury break’ with a

standard guide book and took a walking tour for

a couple of hours. You’d have a comfortable,

stimulating, convivial time away, and it wouldn’t

cost the Earth.

Where would you

like to go?

You have a chance to help design the field trip

that you would like to go on! Is there a city or

region that you’ve always wished you could visit

but haven’t yet got round to seeing? How could

elements of field trip activities be included in

ways that would be interesting to geographically-

minded travellers without giving them the sinking

feeling that comes with worksheets and field

reports?

Inevitably, this means a survey to find out what

kinds of destinations, itineraries and practical

arrangements would most appeal to potential

participants. Graduates who did their dissertation

with some help from me will recall my attempts

to transmit ideas about how to construct a good

questionnaire. The link leads you to what I hope

will strike you as a well-constructed survey that

you’ll find quick and easy to complete:

Survey link

I’d be very grateful if you’d fill it in for me. You

may be too busy at the moment to contemplate a

trip for yourself but I’d still like your views and I’d

certainly be delighted to hear from your parents,

uncles, aunts, family friends … so please do

forward the link to anyone you think might relish

the opportunity to go on a sustainable urban field

trip. Any respondent who goes on to book a trip

will have a chance of a discount amounting to

one day for free.

Rachael Unsworth, Lecturer in

Urban Geography since 1994

Beside the Adriatic on the Trieste field trip, April 2004. Were you there?

Exploring less well-known places: Leeds students in Belgrade, 2013

City Journeys

22

A small group of the MA GIS 1995 students meet up once a year – the locations vary and have included London, Birmingham, Leeds, Saltaire, Dublin and Melbourne! On their 10th Anniversary they even managed to get Graham Clarke to come out for a few beers (unbelievable)!! Last year the city of choice was Liverpool, to re-enact reservoir dogs, stare gazing at the power of Christ and take in the sights of the Albert Dock whilst answering a few questions about their time at Leeds….

Meeting up with old friends

Has a geography degree been useful in your career choice?

JG: Very useful. I have done a lot of work on

natural disasters and how they impact on the

built environment.

RC: Doing the GIS course got me working in a

GIS software company and in a roundabout way

to Marks & Spencer.

SH: Undoubtedly - I have used geography

throughout my career, starting as a Site

Location Planner to my current role with a major

geodemographic company in London.

RB: It has. I’m a town planner, so it’s what I do

for a living.

From left to right: Phil Hammond, Rob Barnes, Steve Halsall, Rob Cockburn, Justin Earrey.

Liverpool reunion 2012: Robert Barnes (RB) Director - Planning Prospects Steven Halsall (SH) Lead Partner - International Property & Retail - CACI Robert Cockburn (RC) Senior Analyst – Mark & Spencer Jon Gascoigne (JG) Freelance Environmental Consultant Justin Earrey (JE) Project Manager - Dovetail Systems Philip Hammond (PH) Associate – Property Market Analysis

23

Favourite courses/modules?

RB: Anything by Graham Clarke!

JG: Stan Openshaw, God bless him - deserves a

medal or a statue. His courses on spatial analysis

and geocomputation were such a laugh and he

was mental obviously!

JE: UG dissertation in the Alps on glaciation.

SH: It’s got to be Retail Geography. Graham

Clarke taking us to Meadow hall and then

organising a BBQ and drinks afterwards. I

remember a stolen Morrisons’ trolley being

wheeled up to Campus with all the beers and

sausages!

Typical student night out ?

JE: In my early years I was a bit of a goth so the

phonographique was a regular haunt.

SH: Dry dock then on to the Poly bop, or the Poly

cop as it was known in those days!

RB: Nazams where you could take your own

booze and eat all you could for about four quid!

PH: Drinking in the Firkin Pub most nights!

Most embarrassing moment as a student?

SH: Getting dumped in the fountain on the

geography field trip in Montpellier.

PH: A moment up in the Pennine Hut with one of

my fellow GIS lads but I don’t think we should go

there…!

Fondest memories of time spent at UoL?

JG: The Geography department was brilliant at

Leeds uni - they had plenty of cash and a nice

new building and a good bunch of people.

JE: My extra-curricular activity - working in

security and seeing lots of bands and hanging out

in the Student Union.

PH: Meeting all you lot... (aahhs from the others!)

SH: The whole time I was there: Great city, great

student life and a great course!

Meeting up with old friends

Formerly The Firkin now The Library

24

Alumni Q & A What is your most treasured possession? SH: My signed Robbie Fowler picture!

JG: My glasses - If I lose them I’ve had it!

PH: My car - most people who know me know that

I am a bit of a nut when it comes to cars and

racing!

JE: A painting by my good friend Lani Imre. It

reminds me of when we hung out together in

Nicaragua.

Which living person do you most admire and why?

JG: David Attenborough, got to love him, he’s like

the Patron Saint - good lad, nature boy!

RC: My wife for putting up with me!

JE: It would have to be Oscar Niemeyer - A

Brazilian architect. He’s designed well over a 100

buildings and his stuff is pretty interesting.

What is your favourite holiday destination? JG: Ibiza town or Jerusalem - bit of an unusual destination. PH: Sailing around the Greek Islands. JE: Salt Flats in Bolivia. Travelling around there in a Landrover for a few days, 5am sunrises.

RC: Canada is pretty cool and the North of

Scotland.

SH: Thailand.

Want to organise a reunion but have lost touch with former classmates? Drop me a line and I can put you in touch with them: t.j.grant@leeds.ac.uk

Watch the interviews live

courtesy of Steve Halsall - thanks Steve!

25

Has a geography degree been useful in your career choice?

Absolutely! Having worked as a Location

Planning Consultant, first for GMAP and now

for CACI, you could say that Geography was

an essential part of my career choice.

Fondest memories of time spent at UoL?

It's a soppy cliché, but I'll make no apologies

for it. My fondest memory of my time at uni is

that of getting to know some really good

friends.

Favourite courses/modules?

I believe I'm contractually obliged to say,

"anything taught by Graham Clarke or John

Stillwell" in answer to this question.

Typical night out as a UoL student? As a rugby boy it was a regimented

Wednesday night routine of Original Oak,

then Edwards, then Europa, then Naffees on

the way home.

Graduates in contact with?

I've worked with quite a few at both GMAP and

CACI over the years. Right now at CACI I work

with Louise Etherden - who was in my

undergrad year - and Rachel Beagent (née

Poole) - who was a postgrad with me. Outside

of work I'm still in contact with quite a few

fellow graduates: Struan Coad, Nina Coad

(Richmond), Jim Brown, Jezz Scoones, Si

Blake, Djoeke Blake (Veldkamp), Louisa

Dellabarca (Edwards), Jo Lacey (Sweetland),

Kate Bourne (Hewson). I see Brian Fletcher in

the supermarket from time-to-time! I missed the

last reunion a couple of years ago but if it

happens again I'll definitely be there!

Most embarrassing moment as a student?

See my answer to the question about a typical

night out! There was a GeogSoc. ball in my 2nd

Year where I was too drunk to tell the

difference between the Gents and Ladies loos

and was thoroughly admonished by Pauline

Kneale for making the wrong choice.

What is your most treasured possession?

I have my Grandfather's diaries and letters

from during the World War II. They make for

compelling (but very emotional) reading.

Which living person do you most admire?

Trevor Bayliss, the inventor of the clockwork

radio. Because he had such a simple idea that

can help so many people.

What is the worst job you have ever done?

I did my fair share of factory temping jobs

during the holidays. Spending a 12 hour shift

stood up wrapping up lengths of plastic

guttering as they came off the production line

was one low point but there were many others.

What is your favourite holiday destination?

It's a tough choice between walking in North

Cornwall and the Alps for skiing. I'll just have to

make sure I do both every year until I make my

final decision!

Alumni Q & A James Debenham: BA Geography 1999, PhD Geography 2003 Location Planning Consultant - CACI

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