Do you know how sometimes something really small is just so joyful that it's difficult to explain. This has happened to me today. I was sat at my desk, in a meeting with one of the Louises when my phone rang and the number displayed was vaguely familiar but I couldn't quite place it. I picked up the receiver thinking it was probably a client and a voice, with a subtle Welsh accent said 'hello'.

I couldn't believe my ears. It was Neil, my boss between 1987 and 1993 when I left Nielsen to joint TNS. Neil was, is and always will be my hero. He was the greatest role model a person setting out in a client service, business environment could hope to have. About eight years after joining Nielsen, I decided the only way to really progress in the company was to try to join client service, the high profile bit of the company. I knew it would be tough - they only took graduates and only really wanted good ones - 2:1 or better, preferably from either red brick or Oxbridge backgrounds. I was not a graduate, in fact I have virtually no qualifications whatsoever.

I was set a task to do a graduate recruitment day, with a whole load of 21-22 year olds and me at the ripe old age of 27! I had to do a presentation that involved interpreting some data, psychometric tests and a formal interview in front of a panel that included Neil.

Neil saw something in me that made him offer me what I now know to be the defining job for me. It meant I had a career rather than a job for the first time. I don't know what it was, maybe just a stubborn-ness to match his own, maybe some modicum of intelligence - who knows. Anyway, he gave me a job - Client Service Exec. I soon learned it was the lowest of the low in client service terms. I was a general dogsbody most of the time.

My new career was a poison chalice because I had to spend a huge amount of time away from home, giving my husband ample opportunity and a very good excuse to find his comforts elsewhere if you know what I mean. Still, I was blissfully unaware of that at the time and threw myself into my new job with vigour.

Neil was ( and I'm sure still is) the most infuriating, stubborn, person I've ever had the (mis)fortune to meet. But the good thing about that was he was also a perfectionist and nothing but the best would do. He was such a hard task-master. I have learned so much from him. He truly was a mentor of the best kind. He pushed me and pushed me until I would cry with exhaustion and exasperation but what I learned I still apply today.

We used to spend a couple of days each week in York, the home town of Rowntree - our biggest client and he always believed that while away from home you had a right to expect the level of comfort of home and Neil liked to live well. We used to dine in the best restaurants and drink the best wine. We'd get back to The Viking (our regular hotel) and he'd say 'come on Linda, one for the swing of the door' a euphemism for a quick drink at the bar before going back to our rooms.

We'd have that drink and in the lift he'd say 'I'll just go and finish my presentation and then I'll pop a note of the extra charts I want under your door'. Sure enough, I'd hear a rustle a couple of hours later and find a few scribbled sheets of paper telling me what he wanted me to draw onto charts in time for the next morning. We'd travel with a PC (before the days of laptops), a mobile phone the size of the Yellow Pages and a Hewlett Packard plotter to draw the charts onto. I'd start work at 5am to prepare his charts before the presentation.

It's now more than ten years since we worked together and when I'm in a sticky situation, I still find myself thinking 'what would Neil have done?'. Sure enough, whatever he'd have done would be the right thing.

For all the hard work, I can't thank him enough. He gave me my break and my career has developed as the result of this man's unique skill at management and his tenacity when he was pushing me and I wanted to give up but he wouldn't let me.

Not only is he my mentor but he's also my friend. He is the most honourable man I've ever met....at a time when his peers would pick the pretty girlies to work in their teams and then spend most of their time trying to seduce them, Neil couldn't have been a better advocate of a decent, family life. His wife, Heather is a remarkable woman too. For six years Neil and I trooped around the countryside together and she didn't bat an eyelid...many wives would have found it difficult to deal with but not her.

The best bit of advice he ever gave me was shortly before I left Nielsen when he realised TNS had a casual dress code - what was it? 'Whatever you do, don't ever wear a cardigan to work!'

Anyway, his call made my day. Neil, this glass of red stuff is in your honour - you taught me to appreciate good wine and good food as well as how to be a great researcher and client service person. I have a lot to thank you for. I raise my glass to you and your family and hope that we can meet early in 2004 to catch up. It's been too long!

I'm sorry this photo is so contrived...but I never promised you a photographic odyssey, just a diary with pictures!