After my column last week on nominative determinism and Marnie Swindells on The Apprentice, I received the following gentle rebuke from reader James Swindells: “My dad assured my siblings and me that our name derives from honest pig farmers in the dales of Derbyshire – where perhaps some of your ancestors might have had something to do with the clumps of trees there. Us Swindells would certainly never seek to cheat anyone out of their money. Obviously, I can’t vouch for anyone called Swindles!” Point taken, Mr S.
On the same theme, David Crookes writes: “Last Sunday’s line about Marnie Swindells reminded me of my period of employment at a Sheffield steel trading firm in the 1970s. I was one half of the team engaged in trading tool steel, the other one being Andrew Swindells. Hence Swindells and Crookes, the team you could trust!”
