In the early 1970s, the cricketer MJK Smith offered me 50 pence per half day for sweeping squash courts and other odd jobs at Wootton Court, the Warwickshire hotel and country club that he and his wife had opened. I was 14, and asked how many hours half a day would comprise. He said he would leave that to me and so I experienced the light, but effective, touch of his trust and leadership.
Once, I was painting in the gents loo, when MJK arrived with gloves, bleach and wire wool, and began removing green copper deposits from the vertical surfaces of the urinals. He did not ask me to carry out the unpleasant task, commenting that it is amazing what one will do when a business is your own: an approach that certainly engendered respect.
