That's me told

After a particularly petty debate at the Royal Geographical Society I mentioned to my mother that I was considering writing a 5000-word humdinger on 'Risk-takers vs. Risk-assessors', perhaps for The New Yorker.

The only problem, I admitted, was that it would require me to reject, publicly, the Chairman's declaration of Chatham House Rules.

"Careful," she said. "You don't want to get a reputation."