The Professor Peregrine Papers

Among the Professor's collection of old cricket balls, mostly signed by obscure county cricketers, there is a single snooker ball. My curiosity was piqued and I questioned the Professor on its provenance.  “Ah yes, that was a parting gift from an old colleague of mine, Doctor Ulceby Cross. I paid him a visit just before he left for pastures new and he threw that very ball at me while calling out in that playful, bantering way of his, ‘Get lost, you pompous windbag.’  He had a reputation of being somewhat standoffish and irritable, but I knew him better than that. For instance, he frequently carried a snooker cue as he went about his daily business and is said to have used it to keep people at arm's, or rather, at cue's length. But, in fact, he was simply expecting to be challenged to a frame or two at short notice. Although, I confess that I can't recall that ever happening. I believe that his air of unfriendliness can be put down to his continual and profound contempla...

I came across a set of notes in the Professor's archives (stuffed into a shoe box, if you must know), which appeared indecipherable and made up largely of symbols. Stapled to these notes were a series of mysterious photographs. It is my duty to record here the Professor's attempt at elucidation. “I was invited to speak at a Symposium at Berck titled ‘Thyme on our Hands - Aspects of Herb Cultivation and the No-Communication Theorem in the Works of Antonin Artaud’. There was a great deal of lively and insightful discussion which, on the second day, somehow metamorphosed into a series of visionary experiments described as ‘Alternative Uses for a Bicycle in the Age of Entanglement’. I cannot imagine a more expressive tribute to the work of Louis de Broglie."  "However, attempts to achieve flight were abandoned following a near miss with a sand yacht and an incident involving delicious but unquestionably odoriferous cheese. Such happy times. At least, I think ‘happy’ is th...