From: Jonathan Brind To: Frank Alan Gauntlett Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 6:40 PM Subject: Chris Hill

It was Chris Hill's birthday on Thursday (he was 66) and I met up with him at a pub in Wood Street we tend to frequent. Afterwards he went home via a supermarket buying some apple pastries and got to within about a hundred yards of his flat when he was stopped by two young men.

They pointed at his bum bag (he uses it as a purse or wallet) and insisted he do something. However, he couldn't understand what they were saying (they didn't appear to speak English). Realising that he was being robbed he thought quickly, reached for a plastic bag out of his commodious brief case and rustled it. This frightened the would be thieves away, who ran off. Chris immediately went home and phoned the police who seem to have sent a car round a couple of hours later (or at least that's what they said when they phoned him the following morning). Another friend of mine woke in the middle of the night, convinced that his son had returned drunk and was making too much noise. He got up and went downstairs to meet a burglar. The burglar ran off with a laptop and some other small items. But it was scary. My friend lives in the posh part of South Woodford. According to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (speaking on the radio the other day) there is now so little crime in London that you would be safe to leave your doors open in Haringey, a place much colonised by Yuppies and professional types but also containing some sink estates of the type we used to have race riots on in the bad old days of Thatcher.

Anyway how are yo? How's Jenny and the kids? How are you getting on with your films and books? I'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes,
Jo