Once again I have come to the end of my annual November run of Guy Fawkes’ school bookings. This time I went as far south as Coventry and as far north as County Durham (twice!), and all sorts of places in between.

Reluctant to part with another beard without some sort of memento, at the end of my last day (yesterday) I asked a teacher in the staff room to take a photo of me using my phone …

Next year I will have to do two things. (a) lose a bit of weight and (b) get some beard dye. Fawkes was 35 years old in 1605, and had been a soldier for more than 10 years. I doubt very much he was as tubby as me, or that he had so many grey hairs in his beard!

I am now back to my regular characters, and after Fawkes yesterday the rest of my week is filled with Sir William ‘beardless’ Petty and the Great Fire of London. (I may have made up a nickname for him there!)

PS: Ruth is talking to me again. She bought me some fancy aftershave as an encouragement to remove the beard as soon as possible!

To see which of my historical characters you might want to visit, please take a look at my page of Characters. I look forward to hearing from you.