A little bouquet of Christmas Nightmares

You don’t need to tell me Christmas can be stressful.

39 years ago the lady I was then with sat on the banister outside our flat in Harley Street on Christmas morning and threatened to jump if I didn’t marry her.

Since the flat was a penthouse, this was a compelling argument. Nevertheless, horrified by the madness of it all, I left the house and rushed off to Euston to take the train home to Mother. Right strategy, maybe, but wrong tactics — there are no trains on Christmas Day.

When I got back it turned out she hadn’t jumped and about a year later we did marry. Then followed dreamlike years of ecstatic happiness – we were madly in love with each other – punctuated by nightmares, because every few months she would try to kill herself. Although I was no model citizen this was not an ideal menage.

Eventually she left me for a Swedish lawyer with transvestite inclinations, then came back, then left, then came back, then vanished. I regularly search for her on the internet – though I don’t know quite why.

When I began this blog I planned to tell stories like that about my life, but somehow I got side-tracked, then sidetracked again – and so on. Rather like my present (and I pray last) partner who eventually flew off to Rome with BA on the 23rd after giving up on Alitalia.

Her plan was to take the train home – but there was no train, so she caught one to Naples where she stayed the night with a friend before being driven across the peninsula back home.

On Christmas Day she was rushed off to hospital with a virus. Not much cheer there either.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

4 Comments

  1. That bouquet has a bouquet that, from a bottle, would get it returned to the cellar!

    All the same … Merry Christmas, Drayton! May you enjoy many more – continuing to be (as you are) philosophical about the downs, while remembering to revel in the ups! There's no season like it, and we your fans know you have a soft spot for it, judging by your photo montage blogs of last Christmas and this.

    God bless …

  2. Thank you, Frank. Much appreciated. I was just reflecting this morning -after being painfully reminded that I NEVER should go out drinking with my son in law Mike – how surprised I have been that so many people seem to like this stuff, which I began entirely on a whim. Somebody wise once said that there is no greater happiness in life than being loved – but being read is pretty good, too.

  3. DaveC

    I hope your current partner's health improves.

    Happy Holidaze!

  4. DaveC

    I hope your current partner's health improves.

    Happy Holidaze!

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