Ruby Bridges

Friday will be fine. What time?’ ‘Twelve thirty? I’ve got meetings all day apart from then.’ My court appearance was scheduled for 10.30 which, assuming it lasted no longer than half an hour, would give me exactly an hour and a half to get from Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court to the Kingston upon Thames branch of Lloyds TSB. Assuming, of course, that they didn’t send me to prison or – a more likely scenario – the case preceding mine didn’t run a single minute over time. It was mission impossible. ‘Twelve