“Go to Deoband,” all my Pashtun teachers advised me, somewhat jealously. “We can’t go. Make use of your British passport! Go and study there!”

AS A BOY at Beaumont College in Old Windsor, I was fascinated by the ability of two of our classics teachers – Fr Hull and Fr Turner – to converse with each other in classical Latin. Like both these priests, I was one of the Beaumont boys who relocated to Stonyhurst in Lancashire when Beaumont closed down in 1966-67. “I am not a theologian,” Fr Hull used to observe, despite his fluency in Latin. “If you need to ask any questions on theology, go and see Father Turner.”

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