Michael (now Lord) Forsyth was the first person I ever worked for.
He offered me a job after we were introduced by Madsen Pirie and Eamonn Butler, founders of the Adam Smith Institute.
The meeting wasn't planned. I was in London for an interview with a business magazine and after the interview I'd arranged to meet a friend from university.
We met at The Albert, a Grade II listed pub in Victoria Street. Madsen and Eamonn were with my friend, and Michael was there too.
At the time he was the youngest director of a public relations company based in Fleet Lane, a stone's throw from Fleet Street where it was my long-term ambition to work.
He invited me to drop by and see him the following day and within 24 hours I'd been offered a job on a salary of £3,500 per annum rising to £5k after six months.
I jumped at the chance although in hindsight it probably scuppered any hope I had of working for a national newspaper because in those days PR execs were not viewed kindly by old school journalists.
The following year Michael founded his own company, Michael Forsyth Associates, and took me and another colleague, Kevin Bell, with him.
Including a secretary there were four of us in a small office in St Andrew's Hill, a narrow Dickensian-style street on the other side of Ludgate Hill.
We were on the top floor. (There was no lift.) A sandwich shop occupied the ground floor. The Observer was a short walk down the hill, just past the pub.
That was 35 years ago.
Today Michael is a member of the House of Lords while Kevin is one of the leading members of his profession, described by The Times as a "PR guru".
By coincidence Kevin was a friend of Stephen Eyres, Forest's very first director, who I remember visiting the office on one or two occasions.
That was my introduction to "smokers' rights".
I mention all this because I couldn't help noticing all the positive tweets Michael attracted last night following his intervention in a House of Lords debate about e-cigarettes and Article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive:
In a short debate on the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, Lord Forsyth said: "This is a classic example of gold plating of European regulations by the UK health department."
Full report here.
Oddly enough the last time I saw Michael was at the wedding of Neil Rafferty, Forest's former spokesman in Scotland.
Neil previously worked for the Sunday Times Scotland and Michael and I ended up on the same table in a marquee in a rural setting somewhere near Stirling.
Neil went on to be co-founder of the Daily Mash.
As for Kevin, the last time I saw him was at the unveiling of a statue of Adam Smith in Edinburgh's Royal Mile.
Also present were Madsen Pirie, Eamonn Butler and ... Lord Forsyth of Drumlean.
It's a small world.