How to stay grounded

Iwas at a party recently where a self-important woman looked disdainfully at my proffered hand before limply shaking it as if it were a wet dishcloth crawling with E. coli . After briefly touching my fingers, her lip curled as she demanded to know who I was and what I did for a living. It felt like an audience with a medieval monarch – the hauteur was extraordinary. As a youngster, such imperious behaviour would have crushed me. But my older self was amused by the Lady Bracknell schtick.

Some people, regardless of their exalted position in life, manage to be effortlessly down-to-earth, putting you instantly at your ease. The difference, in my experience, is that the latter don’t take themselves too seriously. While filming Captain Corelli’s Mandolin on the island of Kefalonia, the lat