Spaghetti westerns and Spanish dance make Neil Dellar’s day
Best book
I usually read crime thrillers. I like James Pattison’s Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls. And I like John Grisham. There’s always a twist at the end, which you think you’ve worked out but you never have. But the book I like best is one my partner, Amy, introduced me to: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel. It goes back to Neanderthal times. It’s fiction but the research is amazing.
Best film ever
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Clint Eastwood (pictured) is superb and I love the tension in the camerawork and the music coming in. Otherwise I go for special effects: films like Gladiator and The Matrix. I’m so impressed with the technology.
Village life
I’ve lived in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, since I was 16. Every Thursday I do the pub quiz in the Plough. We’re a team of three: I do the sport, the village postman does literature, history and maths, and the other team member does nature and America. In a village you always have a role to play and someone to chat to.
Calendar lads
I was in the pub when people were talking about a calendar to raise money for a sports pavilion. They were going to have pleasant scenes, then somebody said they’d make more money with nude pictures.
I posed in the village library. After it had closed for the day, they allowed me and the cameraman in, shut the curtains and we were off. I had some half-rimmed glasses on my nose and was turning round to pull a book out of a rack, just enough to hide what had to be hidden. It was a lot of fun.
Best on the web
The village site, where you can order the calendar: www.greatshelford.co.uk.
Spanish fling
Amy has just finished a Spanish degree and we like Spanish dance and culture shows and flamenco evenings. We recently saw the Juan Mart!n flamenco troupe. They were superb. I love the passion in it. My five-year-old daughter, Amaya, has been going to flamenco lessons. She’s well into it. I couldn’t do it. I’m not that quick on my feet any more.
Neil Dellar, 36, lectures in bricklaying at Cambridge regional college. He was talking to Karen Gold
