A case of nostalgia or egomania?

Rodney Fitch is sitting in his office, musing. He looks at the photos gracing his walls. One shows Baroness Denton, design minister in 1992, at a dinner with Rodney and other – to use his words – “captains of the design industry”.

His gaze drifts to another photo. “I’m looking at myself with Mrs Thatcher, another of me with Prince Philip, there I am collecting the CBE”.

Rodney sees the Denton photo as capturing the spirit of the time. “I couldn’t imagine such a gathering taking place now,” says Rodney sadly. Current design minister Ian Taylor had better hurry up and invite him to tea.

Rodney is suffering from a disease common to designers who shot into the public eye like cruise missiles in the early Eighties. It’s called nostalgia.

Perhaps Rodney should pose with Oasis for the next lot of

snapshots.