John Hegarty

I was really looking forward to hearing John Hegarty speak tonight. I worked in the advertising business from 1975 to 1995 and John was one of the big names in the eighties and nineties through the Bartle Bogle Hegarty agency.

I'd guess that most of the Book Festival regulars are more Guardian than Telegraph types, to put in English terms, and I wasn't too sure what folk would make of a Thatcher-era adman. Nae problem: John had them eating out of his hands. Looking every inch the creative director in his brown shoes, stripey socks and powder blue suit with a garish lining John won lots of laughs and applause, especially when he explained just why he personally was responsible for the introduction of boxer shorts into the UK. Buy the book if you want to know...

Sadly, I wasn't called in the questioning session - there were so many raised hands. I was going to ask about the relationship between the creatives and the finance folk in agencies. And if any of you ask about "creative accounting" I'd say that my former boss and I spent ten years of drinking time wondering where the 20p difference was in our ancient hand-written ledger!