Personalities within the Association

We have interviewed a few of the 'personalities' within ALS, asking each of them the same questions, some lighthearted and others more serious. We will put up these interviews from time to time and hope you enjoy getting to know a few more people 'behind the scenes' at the Association of Lipspeakers.

Our first personality is just that in his own right - but also one of our Patrons, Colin Dexter OBE. Many of you will know him as the highly successful crime novelist and creator of Inspector Morse. Others of us know him as a very good lipreader and advocate for deaf awareness as well as a champion of all human aids to communication, particularly lipspeakers!

Q. What time do you usually wake in the morning?

Colin: Around 5.30am

Q. Pick five words that best describe you.

Colin: Short, fat, bald, deaf, inebriate.

Q. If you could have a one-to-one with anyone (living or dead) who would you choose?

Colin: Shakespeare.

Q. Who, or what, has changed your life for you?

Colin: Coming to live in Oxford.

Q. Now that Morse has passed on, do you still write regularly, and on what subjects?

Colin: I write every day when I'm at home - trying to catch up with correspondence.

Q. What are the most frustrating aspects of communication for you?

Colin: Being at dinner, which I frequently am, and being unable to follow the conversations going on around me.

Q. What would be your Desert Island Discs luxury?

Colin: My luxury (I was on the programme) was a pair of nail scissors.

Q. What would you most like to see ALS achieve?

Colin: Hordes of new members and hoards of new money.

Colin, thank you so much!

Colin Dexter was interviewed by Lynne Dubin, June 2001.