These pages describe a series of times, events and incidents that, as far as I am concerned, have been instrumental in making me the person that I have become. I am not sure how this will develop or how interesting it might be for other people. The title of this page obviously references a Tom Petty song, Petty is one of my wife’s favourite singers, but it also seems to reflect a feature of my life in academic leadership positions. I do try to do what I believe to be the right thing and perhaps persist in that for longer than is healthy for myself.
Almost unbelievably I have been told that the contents of this have been used on more than one occasion to turn down my applications for jobs. I do not feel that there is anything that is here that is either so inflammatory to warrant censure and everything that is written is factual, although it has to be said is written from my perspective. Because of the reaction from some quarters and trying to remain true to my own strong beliefs, I have decided to put the contents into a password protected part of this website. Do not be fooled by this there is nothing salacious or scurrilous here, there are simply stories of times and events that are significant to me. Some are personal and some are professional. Three pages have been individually protected because they have been specifically targeted, these require the same password. The link below will take you to the index for the history part of the website, to get the password you will need to contact me.