Old Quiristers gather annually at the spectacular Advent Carol Service, to encourage and support the current generation. Thus it was last Sunday, when the many OQs proudly sported their strikingly striped Quirister Association ties, singing (this time) from the nave, no doubt rekindling memories of their own time in the stalls.

While sadly there was no opportunity for old and new to mingle after the service this year, two enterprising Qs did find each other in the darkness of this chilly evening (Graham and William, pictured below), exchanging stories of Quiristership, including scrapes at Q School and jollity in the stalls. This parent was warmed to see how, although separated by more than six decades, these two Qs had so much in common. I would like to think, and so perhaps would William of Wykeham, that those separated by six centuries would be similarly alike.

Philip Guest