When I was a kid I didn"t want to be a mathematician at all. My dream was to become a spy. This dream was fueled by my mother who had been in the foreign office before she"d had children. But becoming a mother was apparently incompatible with being a diplomat and so she had to leave her job. But she told me and my sister that they had at least allowed her to keep the black gun every member of the foreign office was required to carry as a member of the diplomatic service. I became convinced that my mother must in fact have been a spy and that she might be recalled to active duty at any moment.