I love application forms.

Here’s one of the myriad of questions I am answering.

“Who would be my perfect dinner guest and why?

250 words.

Him of course! An amazing gentleman.

My ideal dinner party guest would be, if he were alive, is Lord Denning MR.

There are many reasons.

1. He was the archetypal polymath, in my view. He was a British soldier, mathematician, lawyer and judge. I admire anyone who is slightly unconventional, but upholds the values of the institution, and who ‘thinks outside of the box’. I would ask him about what interests him most out of life.

2. Denning was held in high regard by much of the judiciary, the Bar and the public, and was noted for his bold judgments running counter to the law at the time. I would therefore ask him about how you have enough courage to take a field further, as he has done so obviously, beyond the “frontiers”

3. I would be interested in his attitude towards the Oxford entry exam. I in fact jettisoned classics at A level so I could do the customary science A levels to do medicine, but I enjoyed Latin the most out of all my subjects. Denning had to learn Greek to go to Oxford.

4. I would ask him about how he was able to do something despite institutional opposition to his ambitions. This intrigues me a lot. Denning was initially told he would be ineligible to serve in the Armed Forces because of a systolic heart murmur, but appealed the decision.

5. I would definitely ask him what his most favourite legal case, and why. Naturally.