DESPITE having been on the hostel circuit for some three years on arriving in Oxford in 1989, I was shocked by how damaged so many of the residents of Simon House seemed to be (though I do not recollect our ever having actually been breathalysed).
After a few days, however, I noticed a chap standing in the dining room queue and thought to myself that he did not look “too bad”.
Shortly afterwards, I glimpsed him again.
This time he was typing away in a bedroom which appeared to have been adapted into an office, and assumed that some kind of rehabilitation programme was available.
It must have been a fortnight before I chanced to learn that this casually dressed, self-effacing gentleman was in fact Mike (Micky) Hall, in overall charge of the establishment, whose extensive, thoroughly deserved obituary sadly featured in the Oxford Mail last Thursday.
Without wishing to detract one iota from his considerable achievements, I should never have foreseen, however, that he would go on to become a pub landlord.
DAVID DIMENT
Riverside Court
Oxford
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