'I was a bit of a prat' | Film | The Guardian

David Nicholls, author of One Day and Starter for Ten, reminisces about life as a student in eighties Britain:

University is traditionally an opportunity to reinvent yourself, and I clearly decided to reinvent myself as a bit of a prat. Did I imagine it, or did I really try writing with a quill? Photos from the time show me peering meaningfully from behind a lank greasy curtain of hair, cardigan knotted raffishly around my neck. And yet, for all the moping, all the angst, I dreaded the idea that it might end. For me, leaving university was like being dumped into a tub of iced water, and much of my early 20s was spent trying, and failing, to find something that would match up to that experience.

My worst excesses (as a student in the nineties): dying my hair orange, breaking my arm, going hideously into debt.