re 1 I remember my Mum saying that if we had stayed in Brum (Birmingham UK) they would have tried to pull strings to get me into king edward's one of my gradpa

re 1 I remember my Mum saying that if we had stayed in Brum (Birmingham UK) they would have tried to pull strings to get me into king edward's one of my gradparents was a headmaster :-) For non Uk people that's Tolkien's old school and regularly is ranking 1 or 2 in the Country.