Aberdeenshire's preoccupation with all things local is typified by the alleged headline in the region's newspaper, The Press & Journal, when the Titanic sank: "Northeast man drowns at sea.'' Aberdeen University is carrying on the tradition in its latest staff newsletter which records the death of a former vice-principal and professor of English.
It emerges only subsequently that Andrew Rutherford was also vice-chancellor of London University until last summer.