Aldous Longford

Dr. Aldous Longford, PhD (Oxon.), MEd (Hons.), QTS, NPQH, NPQSL, has more qualifications and certificates than spaces on the wall of his office, which was occasion for him to absorb the two adjacent staff rooms to his left and right, ordering the walls to come down within the day, and refusing to vacate his chair while the works were in progress.

The Longfords have historically led sedentary lifestyles in high positions of power. They're used to getting things their way and not having to lift a finger. To the Longfords of past and present, there isn't a single thing in this world that money can't buy. They've sworn and lived by a simple truth, that  'wealth is the measure of man's power over nature,' a motto certainly worthy of a place on their coat of arms. (Yes, they actually do have a coat of arms.) They also have no qualms about the moral ambiguities of power politics. When in doubt, they ask the very simple question: Does the revenue outweigh the spendings? If so, then the answer is always yes. Proceed.

Power. Yes, that's the imperative word. ''Power. Privilege. Prestige.'' These are the three P's that mark a Longford -- and in no human being are these P's so perfectly combined as in person of Aldous, a hardy man with a stern face and an even sterner intellect.

From the outset, you would never have been able to guess that Aldous was not, in fact, a genuine carrier of that prodigious bloodline, or that he had only been the adopted son of a true Longford. Disfavoured by biology, he was never the preferred son to inherit the family business. How he came to be the headmaster and owner of Silver Oak Academy is a story shrouded in speculative history. A good question, yes, yes... for another time.