You should feel disappointed if you don’t get into Oxbridge

When I was at Magdalen College, Oxford, in the early 1990s, I’d often read ‘Bogsheets’ in the loos by the college bar. They were single pages of anonymous college gossip, cheaply printed off in those pre-internet days.

I remember one bogsheet clearly. The headline said, ‘Cheer up!’ And the standfirst said, ‘You’re at the most beautiful college at the most beautiful, most famous university in the world. This is the closest you’ll ever get to living in a country house in your life. Why are you so bloody miserable?’

I was feeling a little sorry for myself at the time. The bogsheet cheered me up instantly – it was spot on. Whenever I go back to Oxford now, I think, ‘Why on earth did you take this all for granted?’