Chapter 11

There were meetings scheduled every morning from Monday to Thursday and they went very smoothly. Leslie working full time and Morag sending regular updates meant that Andrew felt more prepared and everything seemed more under control. The first morning was updates, Tuesday and Wednesday were for new proposals and Thursday was the People Fund. The new proposals took so long because the quality and number were significantly better and they spent a lot of the first morning talking about what level of investment was sustainable. They could have invested £2m then and a similar amount at Easter would have used up the capital, as well as impacting the science initiative that they were moving ahead with. Andrew and Julian were both disappointed that yet another constraint came into play. They understood it, but it still seemed that everything to do with the Endowment Trust was a time soak and a pain in the arse. You can imagine how much sympathy they received from Doug.

They had invested just under £1.5m by the end of September. They limited themselves to £300,000 of investments that quarter, the same as September. At that pace about half the fund would be invested by the end of 1985. 1985 was going to be the year of ruthless capitalism for them, Doug’s words. They needed to start to assess the initial investments, decide whether to grant additional funds, but most importantly it was now time to be clear eyed and dispassionate about how the businesses were doing, sales, profits (if any), number of employees. All the things that were the consequences of idealism and wanting to make a difference. This is not a narrative of the investment industry in Scotland in the 1980s but again it was another moment when Andrew’s outlook changed.

Deciding to do something was easy. Getting a structure in place took several iterations but ultimately it worked out, almost entirely through no input on Andrew’s part. They raised £5.4m between the three of them and then the 40 external investors. So they had their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Then they started to assess proposals which became a challenge and where they were incredibly lucky in the input of Doug Somers. Without him this would have been a mess on a grand scale. But granting the money was easy compared to monitoring it, now Leslie and Creighton’s job. But making the decision what to do with the investment, cash out, invest further, leave in place, actively assist, or most troubling, pull the plug, that is when Andrew realised that this was another level of real. 1984 was all about stripping away his naiveté about people, the stories he heard from Heloise to the mindset of squaddies at Bassingbourn to a summer of working with adults at the MoD. 1985 wiped away his remaining sense that he could fix everything, somehow make it better.

Until Andrew sat in a room and voted to provide no further investment knowing that decision closed a business, cost people their jobs, in many ways he was no different than most students. Idealistic and unrealistic, trying to change to the world. He had to keep coming back to all the strictures, all the lessons that Brian and Doug laid out when he first started. There would be way more losers than winners, and this is what that meant. Someone had an idea, a vision and it had not worked. It was not for Andrew to try and fix why it had not worked, they sat in their conference room and reviewed a business. If it was on the right track and they believed that they had a product or service that would sell in the market, then they continued supporting them. But there were too many businesses where the assumptions in the proposal were flat out wrong. How quickly something could be developed, how much of a market there was for something, if things like that were wrong then they stopped pouring good money after bad. Ruthless capitalism and people no longer had a job.

That sounds very harsh and as Andrew had to vote to act in such a way, it felt a very unsettling thing to do, especially in the early years. That is why 1985 stood out to him. But what countered it, and provided a perfect balance, was the large pile of proposals that they received every month. The time commitment to the Endowment Trust started to become more limited as Leslie created a standard investment firm. Now they had different criteria than most, a different outcome, but other than one or two rocky moments it became self-sustaining. Their first major success resulted in additional amounts being endowed to the Trust. It never became easy but Andrew was taught well by brilliant businessmen. But this was the last of the ‘easy’ investment meetings, every one subsequent to this became more difficult. So the mornings were long and mentally challenging.

After lunch Andrew walked down to Tony’s shop. Even the 10 minute walk let some of the stress of the morning bleed away. That afternoon Andrew worked in the darkroom with Elspeth for company. He showed her how the film was developed, and after the negatives were dry how the prints were then developed.

“How was yesterday?”

Elspeth giggled.

“We have freaked out the kids, that’s for sure. Young Don is 16, Wendy is 13 and Davie is 11 and all three of them are horrified that Mum and Dad are getting all lovey-dovey in the kitchen. I was teasing Donnie as I was making the dinner when young Don came through.”

Elspeth shook her head.

“When is Donnie’s birthday?”

“May, why?”

“Get him a camera. Between Tony and I we will teach you how to develop the film.”

Andrew left the rest unsaid. Elspeth smiled a wicked smile.

“Good grief Andrew, you have a dirty mind.”

She giggled.

“I didn’t realise I had an even dirtier one.”

They left the prints out to dry and Andrew covered the photographic paper and carefully spread out the 10 or 12 pictures of Elspeth standing in front of the mirror. They talked through the different expressions on her face.

“This is the one that I think is the best. There is a confidence to it. The change between your two shoots is amazing. You stood there topless for more than two minutes while we worked on the expressions. It is that confidence that Donnie will see. Well eventually.”

Elspeth giggled and whacked him on the arm.

“I am standing here beside some young man who is only three years older than my Don discussing which of my topless pictures my husband will like the most.”

She shook her head. Andrew carefully enlarged the shot and then they left it to dry. Elspeth picked the same frame as the last time, as well as the same type of album. She was starting a collection. Once they were finished then Andrew tidied up the darkroom, he would be back on Wednesday afternoon. Andrew was having dinner with Leslie and Julian and realised as he walked over to their house that he had been walking around the centre of Edinburgh for five days now. And Leslie still had his car. Because it had all been central he hadn’t really bothered about it but he would reclaim it that night. Hopefully.

When he got to Leslie and Julian’s house the questions started immediately.

“What is the story with Suzanne?”

Andrew told them what he had found upon his return to the flat as well as the conversation with Mrs. Jenner. Leslie was more upset than Andrew was. He was full of self-reflection and was also upset but was internalising it.

“Are you not upset Andrew? Why are you so calm?”

Leslie was quite worked up.

“Because this is what she wants to do. Think about all the endless discussions that you have had to put up with from me over the years. What I am going through with Abigail right now. This is Suzanne working out who she is. Look at it this way, at several points over the last 15 months the two of you have been very much working on your own relationship to the exclusion of everyone else. I experienced that first hand, and although it was occasionally tough, I knew that you would come out the other side and I would have my friends back. Am I upset? Bitterly. But I am not going to rush through to Glasgow and make a scene because she is keeping her distance. I want my friend back, the woman that I saw every day for three years while at school but it may take time. And as I say that out loud, what I want is never going to happen, it is unrealistic to expect to capture some mythical prior time. Everyone changes. Whatever Suzanne is doing at the moment is going to change her, and definitely change our relationship.”

For once he silenced Leslie, in fact she let the matter drop. But what Andrew came to realise was that Suzanne was a very important friend to Leslie. She talked to Suzanne during term because she had a phone and could call her, or call her back. Suzanne and Andrew due to circumstances and cost only wrote letters. Although he was more outwardly accepting of Suzanne’s silence than Leslie it did not stop him from overthinking the situation. Later that evening in the flat, he was aware of how empty it felt. But the thing was Andrew was getting fed up with his own angst. After everything that happened in Paris he had to stop. He had spent the whole term fucking Abi, fucked Lily once as well and had the whole situation with Heloise on top of it. What right did he have to expect Suzanne to be there when he returned, desperate for him to continue taking her for granted? What he hoped was that they could maintain the friendship, it was that he was missing more than anything else.

Since Andrew had left to go to Cambridge he had hardly been in Edinburgh and other than Leslie and Julian, Suzanne and Pete he had made no effort to keep in touch with anyone else from school. He called Pete, on his own in his flat and had Wednesday and Friday night planned in no time. He also made sure to remind Pete that it would be great if June was able to come out one of the nights.

Tuesday morning dragged, more proposals than money, and deciding which proposals to support was uncomfortably draining. He was glad when they broke for lunch. Julian and Andrew escaped for the afternoon and walked up to Julian’s house. Andrew explained on the way how he had written his first new program in a long time and, he realised, his first program on his own practically ever.

“Wow, so you did this mostly over the summer?”

“Yes, I would sit and work in my room at Jim and Freya’s. The data entry wasn’t too bad, we had created lots of those input screens before and I just had to work on designing the fields I wanted. But I spent way more time working on the report writing part. It was a bear to get something that was not horribly clunky.”

Andrew explained what the little program did. Julian listened and then leaned back in his chair and thought.

“I never would have thought of a photography business if I had a thousand guesses. Which makes me think that there are just endless businesses out there where computerisation can help.”

Once again his office had scraps of paper everywhere. They had lots of ideas but it was getting in to see businesses that was going to be the problem. Andrew had been on the inside of the photography business and designed something specifically. Once again, although the coding would be a challenge, it was the business part, and getting engagement, that was going to be the decisive issue.

Leslie told him he couldn’t have her car and that he needed to go and buy his own. That was him told, so he and Julian arranged to go car shopping at the weekend. Julian was ready to ditch the Capri, finally.

Wednesday morning saw them make the last of the decisions on the new proposals and since they had finished early and Doug was there, he Mhairi and Andrew sat and dealt with the much fewer number of People’s fund proposals. By 2.00 the investment business work was done for another quarter and Andrew could escape. When he got to the shop Elspeth was out helping as Christmas shopping had really picked up. Eventually she came through the back.

“Here is the number of Janice. She asked about her shoot. She is available tomorrow if you are still going to be here then. Tony has booked the studio for you, although you would have to be done by 5.00.”

Elspeth phoned Janice, they didn’t really know each other, it was their husbands who were friends. Andrew spoke to her for a few minutes and found out that the morning was better than the afternoon for her. He had finished his meetings early so Janice and her sister would be at the shop at 9.45 for a session from 10.00 until 12.00. Then he and Elspeth went upstairs and sat at the kitchen table. After two hours Andrew realised he was going to code a new program or perhaps extend the current one. The two of them had taken turns reviewing the magazines while the other used pen and paper to keep a tally sheet of the different sets used. The split was 80:20 in terms of studio versus location, interestingly the few European magazines that Maggie and Tony had smuggled into the country were closer to 60:40 although there were only a few of them so it wasn’t much of a sample size. The photographer that had booked the studio was finished and so they took the tally sheet and a few magazines down to the studio and once again looked at it.

“One thing that is obvious is that it is not a real bathroom. Tony has all the hardware attached to the sink and the tub but it is not plumbed in. That would be a big change.”

Elspeth nodded.

“When you start to look at the sets more closely you can see that some are shot in the same studio. Now the blokes buying the magazines are not looking at the flooring but there is a similarity to a lot of the backdrops. Even look at my shoot on Sunday. We used the kitchen set down here but come and see.”

She led them back upstairs and they stood in the flat’s kitchen. The plainness of the set below was obvious. All the little things, the overflowing spice rack, glass-fronted cabinets with the outline of glasses or plates behind them. Now a lot of that would need to be tidied up so as not to be distracting in a shoot but there was a realness to it, an authenticity that the set didn’t have.

“I wonder.”

Andrew walked back down to the studio and looked at the different lights, nearly all of which were left in the same position for each of the sets. He looked at the various tripods and lights and carefully tested the weight of the small, and lightest looking light. Unplugging it he carried it up to Tony’s kitchen and had Elspeth help him move it around. Plugging it in they played around with positioning it. Andrew went and got his camera and took eight sets of three shots, noting carefully the position of the light, use of umbrella, angles, everything. Then he developed the film while Elspeth took the light back to the studio. 30 minutes later 24 damp photos were on the kitchen table and the two of them looked at the result. Half were badly lit or full of shadows, clearly there needed to be additional light sources. Three others were passable, and if Andrew had adjusted the shutter speed would have been okay. One set of three were no different than the set downstairs in the studio.

Elspeth headed home and Andrew sat and dreamed big. Maggie had helped Tony close up the shop and the two of them came up the stairs together. After greeting them Andrew explained and showed them what he had done.

“This is the kitchen up here. When did you take these?”

“This afternoon.”

He showed them the tally sheet that he and Elspeth had created for the sets.

“Is the studio booked every evening?”

“All bar Sunday night, and even then occasionally. Most afternoons and most evenings and all day at the weekend. I am making decent money off it.”

“Could you take more bookings if you had the space?”

“Well yes, but I don’t have the space, not at the times that people want.”

“Create a second, or even third studio up here.”

Tony and Maggie looked at each other.

“Where would we live?”

“Other than the obvious of somewhere else, wherever you want. If you made part of the flat a living area set, and the other part a bathroom and bedroom set, how many bookings could you take?”

Maggie went to change and Andrew helped Tony scrounge up some food for dinner. He had left Tony to think it through as they moved about the kitchen. When Maggie came back through in jeans and a jumper they sat at the table and talked.

“I suppose I was thinking that we had just calmed down from our flights of fancy with the photography business and then you go and spring this on me. But studio space is tight in the city and I could fill all the popular times twice over and half of them three times. So creating two separate sets up here could make us good money. But it would just be a converted flat. And then we would have to make at least what we are paying in rent or a mortgage for it to make any sense.”

Andrew found a pen and paper and Tony went and got a calculator. But when Andrew showed them the calculation they both whistled in surprise. If Tony was right with his estimation of demand then this would be a significant money-maker. He sighed and confessed.

“I made a lot of money from the studio this year. Once I opened it up to more photographers, especially during the day it has made me a lot of money. I spent a lot of money on the sets and equipment in the first years, basically put all the money I made back into the studio. Now though, I am doing well.”

It took six months for everything to be worked out. Permits, upgraded electrical connection, additional equipment, but the decision was made that evening, a week before Christmas 1984. It was the first slide of snow down the mountain, the avalanche was yet to come. When Andrew left to go and meet Pete and June in the pub, Tony and Maggie were walking about the flat thinking about the layout, where lights would go, mentally they had accepted the idea.

Andrew had known June Wyatt since September 1979 when she first started at Heriot’s. She had been in most of Andrew’s classes for the first three years and then in his History class in their final year. Andrew had also fucked her on and off for a year, straddling 5^th and 6^th year. She had been at his party, although had left before the extent of the success of the businesses had been discussed. She had done a one year course at London Fashion School but had returned to Edinburgh. Andrew hadn’t seen her in 15 months.

It had been a fun evening, full of mild flirting and lots of reminiscing. June was now in a flat up at Bruntsfield, only 10 minutes from Andrew’s own flat and he offered to walk her home. June had a very uncomplicated view of sex. She liked it, needed it regularly, but had no interest in attachment. Andrew had always described their time together at school as transactional but in reality, it was just honest. Women got just as horny as men, June wanted to get laid, no emotional complications allowed. But for almost the first time in his life Andrew didn’t just blindly accept her offer. It was a ridiculous way to think but it felt like he was cheating on Suzanne. He had been with no one in Edinburgh other than her for nearly two years. Instead it was slightly awkward but there was no rancour. They had agreed to meet on the Friday so they just moved past it.