David Staples was a first-year biochemistry student at the University of Oxford’s Magdalen College when he entered the world of Freemasonry. Born in south-east London to a working-class family, the young Staples was already trying to make sense of the archaic rituals of the university when he noticed a housemate slipping out twice a term for a clandestine appointment, and returning late in the evening.
Eventually Staples asked where he was going, and was invited to see for himself. A while later he was presented with a date and a time to arrive at the nearest Masonic lodge, with no further instructions.
The evening of his initiation, the weather was particularly foul. The now 46-year-old Staples recalls pulling on his suit and wondering if he could actually be bothered to cycle four miles away down the Banbury Road. ‘It’s funny,’ he says, stirring tea in…
