Well ... certainly a father. Paul wrote a main autobiography - Changes and Chances - and then expanded some of the elements in a series of subsidiary volumes.
Changes and Chances was one of about a dozen major books which were unpublished at his death in 2012. It has been transferred from typescript and is now published with minimal editing.
It covers his years from 1922 until the late 1970s when he first retired and accounts for his time in the Indian Army, through student-hood at Cambridge and as a young master at Uppingham, to being a headmaster in Cyprus during the 'Troubles' and latterly at Aldenham during the social revolutions of the 1960s.
Paul is famous for his clear thought, clarity of expression and directness. This style pervades Changes and Chances. He observes the changing world as he himself was growing and developing his ideas. Starting as a lonely boy whose best friend was a dog he became a headmaster who was almost blown up by terrorists, and whose fictional alter ego was destroyed in a film.
As might be expected, the account starts with a poem of which the first verse runs:
Changes and chances,
Dirges and dances:
This is the curious pattern of men:
Picking the daisies,
Driving like crazies,
Silent at breakfast and shouting by ten.
Changes and Chances is now available from www.lulu.com/shop (search on Changes and Chances or Paul Griffin) for £10.
We hope to print more of Paul's work soon, including some of the subsidiary parts of his autobiography and his novels.
