Olly Mann was at his grandmother’s funeral a few months ago when he had an unexpected conversation with the presiding rabbi. Mann is a podcaster and radio presenter, and his grandmother’s eulogy had mentioned the pride she felt when she heard him broadcasting on BBC Radio 4.
After the ceremony, the rabbi explained apologetically that he hadn’t heard him, so Mann rattled through some recent work. “He looked at me blankly, and then he twigged: ‘Oh, you’re the guy who writes the Reader’s Digest column!’ and his eyes lit up,” says Mann. “He said: ‘I remember reading a column you wrote about choosing a mattress at Dreams.’
