Richard Thomson describes himself as a "Don Quixote tilting at windmills and thinking you can make a difference if you try hard enough" but adds that in the real world he is deputy commissioner at Southern District Health Board and managing director of retail chain Acquisitions.
What was the best birthday present you ever received, and why?
It's a toss-up between my aged 8 "screaming mee mee" (social historians can look it up) and my aged 15 orange corduroy flares (social historians can also look them up). The latter wins, because for the first (and only) time in my life I thought I was cool. It was 1971.
What smell do you find irresistible?
No question, hands down winner is roast lamb. Preferably cooked in death defying lard. Please don't tell Public Health.
What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
Just the one then? That more and more of the world's resources are being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands and no-one seems to have the political gumption to say enough is enough.
What is one strong childhood memory?
Being taken out to family do's and being "put down" somewhere to sleep. I always loved that half-awake, half-asleep state, being carried in from the car to bed afterwards. It felt such a comfortable reassuring thing.
You are a new addition to the crayon box. What colour are you, and why?
I was a lecturer in psychological medicine surrounded by Freudian psychiatrists. I know there is no safe answer to this question.
