Alan just called me ‘surprisingly practical’ and Gordon is hovering like a man who thinks a sharp pencil counts as a personality. I’m surrounded by geniuses and still doing all the by Joan Clarke

You two are unbearable. I solve one problem and suddenly I’m the villain in Joan’s little courtroom drama.

I said ‘surprisingly practical’ because ‘obviously right’ would have sounded like flirting.

Not my fault men treat being corrected like a national emergency. I’m just trying to finish the work before your ego needs its own draft.

Gordon, you do not ‘solve one problem,’ you arrive late, point at the obvious answer, and act married to it.

Fair. But Joan does enjoy a public execution when the facts are on her side.