Meet Gerard Culpeper

Gerard Culpeper is a pastry chef. He is a pleasant-looking fellow – you know the type, neither handsome nor plug ugly. His skin is clear and smooth and his dark hair clean and well-cut. He's of medium height, around 5'10", and moderately well-built. He's no Mr Universe (how do those muscle-bound men manage to move?) but he's not flabby. I imagine he follows an exercise régime of some sort probably involving walking or running, perhaps cycling or rowing, all of which activities must be pursued in a gymnasium since he works long hours and often does not leave his place of employment before dark falls. I can't see him playing squash or badminton or any team sports since he spends his working days in close confinement with many other people and needs the relaxation of being solitary for a while. He's about 35 years old and though he is well-known to his colleagues and well-liked if not popular, for some reason his name escapes them. He thinks it is because he is a quiet sort of chap, a listener rather than a talker but so tired has he become of being called Jack or Jim or Colin that he has taken to wearing a badge with his name printed neatly on it.

GERARD CULPEPER

Pastry chef

How do I know him? The truth is, I don't. Gerard Culpeper sprang fully-formed into my consciousness as I woke this morning. Why he should have chosen me as his channel of communication I do not know. I have never met anyone called Gerard or Culpeper, though of course I have heard of Culpeper's Herbal. (Culpeper's Complete Herbal, written by Nicholas Culpeper and published in 1653.)

Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I frequently encounter odd characters in the moments before I'm quite awake but rarely remember them. To the best of my knowledge I never see the same 'person' twice. Do you?