Once upon a time I was a 13 year old who selected Spanish as my second language. I had the very good fortune of being taught by a wonderful and inspiring young teacher called Miss Wilkinson who was straight out of Cambridge. For the years to O level she drilled in the grammar but never lost sight of the joy of the language and its vocabulary. I even managed to read a book in Spanish about the Civil War -  El Otro Arbol de Guernica - a book now apparently included on the A level syllabus (how times have changed!). We learnt all the tenses, the subjunctive - always in use, unlike in French - as well as lots of fun vocabulary about food and drink. Miss Wilkinson also explained the Arabic roots of some of the words such as Ojala - 'let’s hope'.

I harboured secret desires to be a judge and so in preparation for my Spanish O level oral exam I practised with Miss Wilkinson all of the Spanish vocabulary about judges and courts to impress the examiner. I was later told by Miss Wilkinson that the examiner had never heard anything like it, probably thinking what a complete so and so...!

I chose not to carry on with Spanish at A level but I never lost my love of the Spanish language and after graduating in 1990, and not having used Spanish for five years, I travelled to Colombia and lived in Bogota for a year. Life was rather difficult turning up in Colombia with scant Spanish and a thick European-Spanish accent. No-one understood me when I said cien with a heavy 'th' and it was a rather dangerous place in 1990 during the drugs war as well as an ongoing civil war. However I totally fell in love with the place and the people and Colombia is still a major part of my personal and cultural life, as well as my work life - from supporting Colombia in the football, to dancing salsa, to loving the wonderful literature, music and art that Colombia produces: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner, Shakira and Balvin Singh, pop stars and the sculptor, Botero.

I became a family barrister dealing with Spanish and Latin American clients using my Spanish every day of the week. My colleagues find it absolutely hilarious when I am screeching down the phone in Spanish interspersed with the odd English word. Every time someone rings up my office who is not a native English speaker they are put through to me on the assumption that they must be a Spanish speaker - often they are not! My Spanish speaking friends tell me that in fact I speak faster in Spanish than I do in English, which for a barrister is saying something.

Eventually, I did indeed get appointed as a part time judge as a result of which I really wanted to contact Miss Wilkinson to tell her that my dream really had come true! Thanks to the sterling efforts of the school Archivist, Judith Curati, I have just managed to get in contact with her. The now Mrs Elliott is flourishing as the Head of Channing School and has apparently just done a sky dive!

I eat, dream, work and sing in Spanish. Thank you so much, Miss Wilkinson.