Didactylos @ Home

Hi there, and welcome to my Space.

I am white, male, gay and of mature years. So far, so boring; but my claim to fame is that I was born on United Nations Day exactly one year before it was invented - that is, the UN was hatched on my first birthday. Of course, I did not take a lot of interest in it at the time. In a way, this puts me ahead of the field, because some very important people are not taking a lot of interest in the UN these days.

After an average childhood in a middle-sized provincial town in the North of England, I had my name down to start working for the Borough Engineer. In the nick of time, I realised that this would not sit with my developing love of languages, and did a quick about-face to stay on at school and then do a degree; but thereafter I found it necessary to make my way in the world. To this end, I tried a number of options:

I was an analyst-programmer in London, Ferrybridge (Yorkshire) and York, back in the old mainframe days when most of your software had to be written in-house, usually at assembler level, punched up on cards, tested overnight and checked on print-outs of a core dump and the output data the next morning. (The assemblers, in my case, were those for the ICL 1900 and System/4.) I was reasonably good at this, as I have a problem-solving mind (of sorts), but I decided in the end that office life was not for me.

Then I was a van-and-driver for hire in Newcastle upon Tyne - Transit man. White vans had not been invented in those days, and probably not their reputation either. In any case, mine was dark blue. I became a dab hand at fitting 3-piece suites in the back and getting grand pianos upstairs. More enjoyable were the long runs for industrial customers - as far afield as Troon, Southampton and Haverfordwest (which is in West Wales).

I was also a delivery driver and a taxi-driver on Tees-side. There is something to be said for a life behind the wheel, but the night shifts were not so attractive. Besides, I have this theory that you can only travel a certain number of miles before you get involved in someone else's serious accident.

Finally, I found myself and returned to my first love: languages. Nowadays, after quite a few years in London, which had their good sides and their bad sides, I live facing the briny on England's sunny south coast, earning my living as a freelance translator. This gives me the total independence of a completely insecure future, which is probably the best compromise available.

I share my flat with an Apple Mac, a fax machine, umpteen dictionaries, a complete set of Pratchett, countless CDs, 2 hamsters and 5 lemurs. (Every word of that is true, except for the hamsters and the lemurs.) Favourite music: Queen, this week. Favourite author: a toss-up between Robert Rodi and the aforementioned T. Pratchett. Favourite tv programme: Have I Got News For You. Favourite holiday destinations: Gran Canaria/San Francisco. Favourite element: water. Favourite colour: sort of turquoisey purple. Or maybe orange.

(The original Didactylos is, of course, an Ephebian philosopher who turns up in Terry Pratchett's book Small Gods [di = 'two', dactylos = 'finger', so he gets his name from the Victory salute, which is nice]. As for the city-state of Ephebe, nestling between Omnia and Djelibeybi on the Circle Sea, 'ephebe' is a learned term for a youth, derived from the Ancient Greek word ephebos, meaning a young man between the ages of 18 and 20 (check in the Oxford English Dictionary if you don't believe me). An ephebeion was a place set aside for these youths to exercise and practise gymnastics, which they would do naked, because this is what gymnos means. - All of which casts an interesting sidelight on the thinking behind the Discworld.)

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