There will, hopefully, be a generous complement of these ego-deficient people at every school or class reunion, but I suspect they'll be swamped, if this open-faced enthusiasm can ever be swamped, by those of less wholesome workings. I've never been to a school reunion but I'll be surprised if the intention of most of those who go is not to scoff, to dismiss and to reward themselves with a smugness befitting their success.

School reunions are for those who've done well, and I suppose pleasant memories of school days helps. School for me was a time of boredom broken only by peashooting the teacher, using a ruler to catapult blobs of chewed paper onto the ceiling and getting caned. School days passed in an interminable drone. So why would I want to go back there via a reunion!

Have you been to one of these shindigs? Tell us about the goings-on beneath the pumping handshakes and air kisses.