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Thirty years ago, I was asked to find if there were any intellectuals in Essex. At the time, working freelance for regional newspaper the Essex Chronicle, I noted the Evening Standard had published a feature on Essex being the home of the second-hand car dealer and Page Three girl, and little else. The assignment wasn't tongue-in-cheek; I wanted to redress the implied trashing of my home county which, if you knew, had rather more to it than what the Standard suggested. Thirty years on, I w...