Whitbread

"I'm hoping I'll come back here in a couple months and I'll see some fresh shoots," Zack Whitbread told me.

He won the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1980 with How Far Can You Go?, about young Catholics and their response to the Vatican's policy on contraception.

Signatories of the letter include Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, the bosses of pub firms Fuller's and Stonegate Group, and Premier Inn's owner, Whitbread.

The matured improvement of Lewis, the emergence of Minchella as leader and international player, the revitalisation of Jai Whitbread and Kelepi Tanginoa - the evidence of his coaching is tangible.

First released in 1990 it won the Whitbread book of the year award and was turned into a four-part television series by the BBC three years later.