It slipped away from between the pages as I pushed my way down Oxford Street. It was a present, given to me by my house mate Rose. At that time in 2002 we were house mates while teaching in the States. Rose had been on a trip to Atlanta and brought me back the long oval almost fish-like metal bookmark. Along its body was inscribed, “nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm”, which I took as a compliment rather than a criticism.
In those early days of multicoloured security alerts I was held for half an hour at Newark airport while the security staff debated whether or not it could be a terrorising implement.

It has parted the pages of many books, and has been lost and found many a time. But this time I fear it is gone forever. Goodbye old friend. I hope you are picked up and used by someone else and are not swept up to an early grave.