"The Royal Marines description of me as "happy-go-lucky" is good for many things, but somehow it doesn't wash with university applications. And with my mediocre A level results I was getting a hefty number of rejections winging my way. A lot of my good friends were heading to Bristol University. But I had as much change of getting in there with my ACDC grades as Deborah Maldives had of winning a beauty pageant." --