Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 87 — Easter 2019 A hitchhiker’s guide to Douglas Adams’s Cambridge Tax policy might not be sexy but it determines the character of society Why sport is good for students – and for their academic results EASTER 2019 | CAM 87 1 2 CAM 87 | EASTER 2019 Editor Mira Katbamna Managing editor Steve McGrath Design and art direction Rob Flanagan University of Cambridge Bruce Mortimer Charis Goodyear Cambridge Alumni Magazine Issue 87 Easter 2019 02 INBOX Publisher The University of Cambridge Development & Alumni Relations Campendium 1 Quayside, Bridge Street 20 Cambridge CB5 8AB Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 07 DON’S DIARY Dr JD Rhodes. Editorial enquiries Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 08 MY ROOM, YOUR ROOM [email protected] Josie Rourke (Murray Edwards 1995). 11 SOCIETY Alumni enquiries Tel +44 (0)1223 332288 Cambridge University Brass Band. [email protected] 13 BRAINWAVES alumni.cam.ac.uk facebook.com/cambridgealumni Professor Stephen J Toope. @Cambridge_Uni #camalumni Contents Advertising enquiries Features Tel +44 (0)20 7520 9474 [email protected] 14 WHY TAX IS GOOD FOR YOU Services offered by advertisers Tax policy might not be sexy but it is at are not specifically endorsed the heart of determining the character by the editor, YBM Limited of a society. CAM investigates. or the University of Cambridge. The publisher reserves the right to 20 COMPLEXITY. BEAUTY. MYSTERY. decline or withdraw advertisements. Dr Ross Waller says that we know very Cover little about single-celled organisms. Illustration: Holly Exley. 24 DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is Whether it’s a response to the digital published by Penguin Random House. world or a new kind of performance, Copyright © 2019 playing – for adults – is back. The University of Cambridge. 30 A HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE CAM is published three times 24 a year, in the Lent, Easter and Douglas Adams’s (St John’s 1971) comic Michaelmas terms, and is sent free genius was incubated in Cambridge. to Cambridge alumni. It is available to non-alumni on subscription. 34 SUMMER PODCASTS For further information please email The CAM guide to beach listening. [email protected]. 36 INTO THE BLUE The opinions expressed in CAM New research has found that sport has are those of the contributors a positive impact on student wellbeing. and not necessarily those of the University of Cambridge. Extracurricular CAM is produced for the 43 SHELFIE University of Cambridge Dr Terri Apter. by YBM Limited. ybm.co.uk 44 ALUMNI LIFE The role of volunteers. 45 SOUNDTRACK Jonathan Dove (Trinity 1977). 47 UNIVERSITY MATTERS Dr Mark Wormald, Co-Chair of the Student Support Initiative. IMAGES FROM TOP: JOE SNOW; MATTHEW TOWN AND JAMSTUDIO; LYDIA GOLDBLATT 48 CROSSWORD EASTER 2019 | CAM 87 1 Welcome to the Easter edition of CAM. According Kleptocracy to HMRC, tax doesn’t have to be taxing. But should Professor Sharman’s it be life-enhancing? Fun, even? From customs duties exposure (CAM 86) of the collaboration of rich western to tax havens, on page 14 we discover that while tax countries with corrupt leaders of developing countries reveals policy might not be sexy, it could well determine how the failure to enforce Inbox available legislation has made the character of a nation. the provision of secure homes Dungeons and Dragons. Live-action roleplay. a distant dream for millions of UK citizens. Cosplay. Whatever you call it, play – in person and Henry Pryor (Trinity 1954) often in full costume – has never been more on-trend. On page 24 we find out why games for grown-ups are Another great issue. Just one thing: kleptocracy doesn’t, undergoing a renaissance. or shouldn’t, mean rule by thieves, but power/might/ Think single-cell organisms are simple? Think strength/grip of (by/for) thieves. Editor’s letter The difference is key: this useful again. On page 20, Dr Ross Waller explains that term (coined perhaps in the early finding out more about these complex, beautiful 1960s?) is potentially of universal application and, as is the case structures is essential – not least because, at the today, most of the thieves don’t hold formal, let alone elected, moment, we know so little. political power. Finally, we would like to pay tribute to CAM’s Paul Cartledge (Emeritus AG Leventis crossword setter, John Harrington – better known in Professor of Greek Culture and Fellow of Clare) these pages as Schadenfreude – who died earlier this year. Over the past 10 years, his wit and imagination Crossword confounded, infuriated and delighted readers. You can What a shock to read that Schadenfreude, your crossword find the solution to his last CAM puzzle on page 48. setter, had died. He has given so much cerebral ‘pain and On all these topics – along with anything else pleasure’ over the years and Cambridge-related – we look forward to your will be sorely missed. Neil Curwen contribution to the debate, whether by post, email (St Catharine’s 1959) or on social media. The instructions could be off-puttingly complicated Mira Katbamna (Caius 1995) (and they did once get him into Private Eye’s Pseuds Corner), but [email protected] it was worth persevering. I hope COPELAND KATE ILLUSTRATION: 2 CAM 87 | EASTER 2019 Write to us We are always delighted to receive your emails, letters, tweets and facebook posts. [email protected] CAM, 1 Quayside, Bridge Street, Cambridge, CB5 8AB @Cambridge_Uni facebook.com/cambridgealumni Please mark your letter ‘For publication’. You can read more CAM letters at alumni.cam.ac.uk/cam. Letters may be edited for length. that you find a halfway worthy a lot of friends who frequented a great compliment. I always look My Room, Your Room successor. PS: I have come back to the Locomotive pub and there forward to CAM arriving and him, after a lazy gap, by tackling was an excellent wholefood shop I always find it worth reading – Rowan Williams says 86, which is brilliant indeed. called Arjuna (which I am it serves a sustaining educational the biggest change to his room is Charles Barr delighted to see is still there). purpose. You may not get many the absence of the gas cooking (King’s 1958) Peter Baker responses, but I think many, ring. Back in my third year, I had (Magdalene 1964) many people enjoy reading CAM. an identical room to his: maybe Schadenfreude will be sorely John Mair my memory’s playing tricks on missed by thousands of solvers Your piece on Mill Road (Caius 1982) me but I’m pretty sure we had of advanced crosswords reminded me of the Midland uncarpeted wooden floors. That everywhere. I do hope you will (now Devonshire) where I spent Brexit feels like a pretty big change continue this excellent series much of my third year. Punk to me. Marina Hardwick [see of puzzles! They have been some nights on Wednesdays and Professor Catherine Barnard below] was on our floor, too, but of the very best published. reggae at the weekends. I helped says: “For Cambridge, the best had the luxury apartment at the Tim King to set up a gig there for the future immigration policy is one end of the corridor, where I (Trinity 1980) legendary St John’s band, Roger as close as possible to what we’ve expect she didn’t just have carpet and the Bannisters, who sang: got at the moment”. As chair of but also chandeliers, mini bar, Fifteen years ago, my goal “Cambridge girls, Cambridge a university spin-out company, trouser press and colour TV. was to get a place at Cambridge. girls/ Leave me out of your social I want to attract the most able Steve Mills For the last 10 years it’s been to whirl/ Cambridge girls, staff in the world, not just (Christ’s 1982) solve just one clue in the alumni Cambridge girls / You wouldn’t Europe. An immigration policy magazine #cryptic crossword. last a minute in the real world”. that supported migration on an No carpet! But for a while Sometimes I wonder if the puzzle The bitterness of the lyric was equal basis of the world’s most I shared with a stray kitten I’d is gibberish, printed to remind possibly influenced by the able people, wherever they were found. It lived in a cardboard us we’re not as smart as we think. scarcity of those girls at the time. based, would surely also support box and it was a struggle to keep Hannah Whiteoak Mike Eagles the University’s international the bedder out until I gave (Newnham 2005) (St John’s 1977) role and status. it to the Blue Cross. Andrew Mackintosh Marina Hardwick Mill Road Killer plants (Darwin 1978) (Christ’s 1982) CAM is a very stylish and Regarding your piece on plant The 12,922,659 eligible people beautifully laid-out journal; blindness (CAM 86): if you show who did not vote in 2016 can be HOW WE USE in CAM 86 I particularly liked a picture of a plant in a field of categorised into two broad YOUR DATA Niall McDiarmid’s thoughtful chickens, does dietary preference groups: those who did not care, We are committed to protecting photographs [of Mill Road]. affect who sees it? and those who did not think that your personal information and Chris Storey Steve Parfitt it was worth voting. being transparent about what (Trinity 1958) (Jesus 1969) If Brexit is reversed there will information we hold. Your data be another 17,410,742 people with is used by us for alumni and In 1968, I lived in Mill Road University Matters enough concrete evidence to supporter relations, and for (at number 203) with my friend, sympathise with that latter fundraising.