On the afternoon of August 19th 1992 I was complimented by a work colleague, Capt David John, on my telephone voice.
I was working as a tele-salesman selling ad space in books and magazines for the London publisher Harrington Kilbride.
He even suggested, more than once, that it would make a good broadcasting voice and that I ought to work for the BBC.
The following day BBC Radio 4 rang me at the office and left a message for me to contact them.
When I rang the next day a lady answered and told me that she was inviting me to participate in a Radio programme called Ad Lib that was to be recorded the following week.
The format was that the presenter, Robert Robinson, would chair a fairly informal discussion with a panel of invitees, all of whom had something in common.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Robinson_%28television_presenter%29
This was a panel of chess people.
I agreed to participate.
Later that same afternoon I was leafing through a catalogue of CEBIT; a computer-related technology exhibition that had occurred in Hannover in March 1992.
(See Entry 98)
I noticed an organisation that was listed as a manufacturer of “memory boards”. They were American, but their European HQ was in Oxfordshire.
I noted that it was in Robert Robinson Avenue.
After the earlier coincidence that day I was moved to take note, and rang the company in pursuit of a deal.
I spoke to the European Boss... and a few hours later we received confirmation that his company was buying a page of advertising space at the cost of £3950, a deal on which I received commission of 15%.
I subsequently found out that the Avenue is named after Sir Robert Robinson who had co-written 'The Art & Science of Chess' with RB Edwards and was a former President of the British Chess Federation, 1950-53.
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