Talking about the influence of Vicar Shaw, I think that you need just one or two inspirational teachers in your life who'll pass on their spark. Kenny Alvin at Imperial College often "forgot" the required curriculum and went off on a tangent about his hobby horses, mainly to do with palaeobotany, and you couldn't help having his boundless enthusiasm rub off on you. Another was Kery Dalby (his full first name was Dunkery, called after Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, in sight of which he was born), who taught us plant taxonomy. He'd occasionally take us for a botanical ramble, and progress would be "painfully" slow as he stopped incessantly to give us lengthy rundowns on wayside weeds. On one occasion we were on our way with him to Box Hill in Surrey. We got off the train at Boxhill and Westhumble station - and it took us an hour and a half to walk the half-mile from there to the bottom of Box Hill. But he had the knack of making you hang on his every word as his enthusiasm bubbled over, without a hint of pedagogical ego...a brilliant man who would always let his students buy him pints... :-)