Bringing the band back together…and to where it all started!

"Somehow by hook or by crook, and with some decidedly mediocre A-level results I managed to squeak a place at Nottingham to read Botany. As a lad born and bred in the West Midlands’ county town of Stafford, Nottingham appealed hugely. In addition to its terrific campus and acclaimed Life Sciences department, it was perhaps more pertinently far enough away for my parents to be simply unable to drop in unannounced, while still relatively close at hand should I need my own body weight in dirty laundry servicing for free.

"My first day at university in the October of 1985 burns fresh in my mind like yesterday. Having secured a place in Lenton Hall for that all-important first year, my parents dropped both me and my worldly possessions off with the minimum of fuss, before quickly disappearing - presumably to avoid cramping my style. Initially I’d be sharing a room in Lenton Hurst (an annex of the main hall) with a chap called Jonathan, while just next door we both quickly met two more roomies - another Mike and Dave. Quickly followed by Preet and Spencer, who were both Production Engineering pals from the main part of the Hall, we instantly formed a Band of Brothers while negotiating the thrills and spills of Fresher's week and beyond."

"According to the old university adage ‘You spend the first week of university making friends, and the next three years trying to get rid of them’, and I’m sure this how it often plays out. Friendships made quickly, can often be based on a combination of expediency and necessity, only to then be jettisoned when you find your ‘tribe’. However despite our very different backgrounds and course choices this was never the case with us. It was an immediate and beautiful geographical happenstance, and from the first day of year one to the last day of year three we proceeded to spend almost every waking minute - when not studying (of course) - in each other’s pockets.

"Dining together, partying together and acting as each other's relationship counsellors, my five Lenton pals had become my new family. And if I’m entirely honest we were having so much fun that I rarely gave my biological family a second thought. At the end of a rollercoaster first year, in which we’d become as thick as thieves, the next obvious step was to move into a house, leading to us securing a six-bed semi on Harlaxton Drive. Located off the fabled Derby Road and right in the middle of ‘student country’, our accommodation for both second and third years was a ten minute cycle ride from Campus, a twenty minute walk from the City Centre and a hop, skip and a jump from the Happy Return Pub.

"Fast forward to our finals and I guess we all wished we’d spent a little more time studying and a little less time partying. But all managed to graduate from very different degrees with an even split of 2:1s and 2:2s. In the years that have followed, and despite our widely and wildly varying career and life choices, one remaining constant has been our enduring friendship. Throughout births (ten), parents passing on (six), marriages (five) and epoch-making career moments (infinite), we’ve all kept in touch by phone calls, texts, meet-ups and more latterly via WhatsApp. And this is despite our extended university family stretching from Auckland, New Zealand and Nice, France to London, via the West Country."

"To fill you in on what we’ve collectively achieved since graduating would take a volume the size of ‘War and Peace’, but in essence we’ve all taken advantage of the substantial springboard that Nottingham University so kindly provided.

"After a slow start, I hit my straps as a field biologist across the world’s tropical rainforests, before an opportunity in front of of a camera crew in Ecuador changed the course of my career and life. I’ve now spent 18 years pontificating about everything from bumblebees to basking sharks on BBC’s The One Show, in addition to lecturing and tour-leading all over the world about wildlife and conservation. This work delightfully led to an Honorary Doctorate from my alma mater in 2023.

"Preet Grewal graduated in Production Engineering and his entrepreneurial ambitions led to the formation of the brand Eat Natural, which produces fruit & nut bars and breakfast cereals. He has been at the forefront of the healthier snack movement since the late 90’s. Spencer Griffiths meanwhile has helped shaped the move from mere paper plans to full electronic designs on an array of projects for some of the world’s biggest companies, which include Rolls Royce, Airbus and McLaren.

"After Nottingham, Jonathan Bruce worked in a sales and marketing role with ITV, before joining the family nursing and care business. After successfully growing it to one of the largest in the UK, he sold the business in 2017 and has since turned his attention to the independent foster care sector, where he hopes to have similar success.

"We also have two expats within our motley crew…Mike Parker used his Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree to great effect right across Asia, before then settling down with Nokia in New Zealand. Meanwhile Dave worked in IT in and around London for ten years, before moving to Nice in the South of France to delight in the Côte d’Azur all year round."

"Despite our different backgrounds, life choices and career paths, the common thread that runs through all our six lives is the terrific and transformative three years spent at Nottingham. By way of additionally celebrating forty years of friendship, we recently undertook a reunion back at the university last year. With help from the alumni office and delightful assistance of third year engineering student Ekta, who kindly took us around the campus and listened to our endless reminiscences, it was frankly marvellous to be back. Everything and nothing appeared to have changed. Then after a day spent poking our noses into faculties and around Lenton Hall, it was off to The Hippo nightclub in the city centre, where a spot of drinking and dancing ensued!

"Parting our ways come the Sunday morning, plans were spontaneously laid down there and then for a 50th. And given the fraternal bonds laid down during that heady period from 1985 to 1988 I have no doubt we’ll make it happen. Particularly given our unwritten pact, which is ‘to stay (or keep in touch) together, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health and until death do us part’."

Mike Dilger - Naturalist, Broadcaster BSc (hons), MSc & PhD (Hon. causa)