After all these years of teaching on Monday mornings, I’ve stopped. Yes, I’ve retired. I still can’t believe that I can now sleep in late after the weekend, and that I don’t have to fight my way onto the packed train to get to my teaching room on time. I don’t have to line up for coffee, and I don’t have to search for the AV technician to load up my slides.

And, dear students, I don’t have to mark all those essays and exam scripts that you carefully put together for me. Most were very good to read and nothing pleases a teacher more than to be presented with a well-researched and written essay. I do miss you all and it is a delight when I get news of your progress. I know you will all do well.

As you know, it is very hard to teach organisational politics without it becoming as dry as dust, so, I’ve taken some of my case work to illustrate the dynamics of power and the genesis of dysfunctionality, and set them out for you in gobbets taken from my forthcoming novel. I hope you enjoy them.