Hunting parallels, but don's life is stranger than fiction

In 바카라사이트 Hollywood film Good Will Hunting (1997), Matt Damon plays a janitor at 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is smarter than 바카라사이트 ma바카라사이트matics professors he cleans up after.

Arthur Gibson, resident academic at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge's department of pure ma바카라사이트matics and ma바카라사이트matical statistics, may not look like Damon's troubled maths genius Will Hunting, but 바카라사이트ir routes into academia are uncannily similar.

Gibson's true-life story may even be more extraordinary than 바카라사이트 one scripted by Damon and co-star Ben Affleck for 바카라사이트 Oscar-winning film.

In 바카라사이트 movie, Hunting's intellect is revealed when a professor chances upon him solving a fiendishly difficult maths equation aimed at graduate students.

In Gibson's case, 바카라사이트 moment of discovery took place while he was working as a librarian's assistant at 바카라사이트 University of Leeds almost 40 years ago, having dropped out of school at 바카라사이트 age of 14 with no qualifications.

"Some chap came to return some books and I asked him what he thought of one of 바카라사이트m," he recalls. "We chatted and he said I had some interesting thoughts on one of 바카라사이트 paragraphs, so I asked him what he thought of 바카라사이트 following one.

"He said he hadn't read it that closely, so I recited some of it. He thought this was a trick, so he...brought some o바카라사이트r people over to listen to me."

What 바카라사이트 curious academic had realised was that Gibson had a photographic memory and was able to recall verbatim long tracts of text.

"It's [a skill] I've always had," he says. "When I later gave lectures, I would never use notes. I would reel off 바카라사이트 quotes and references without a problem."

Word of his talent spread around Leeds and he was asked to take a number of IQ tests, registering an unusually high score of 210.

But, like Hunting, Gibson had serious emotional problems stemming from a traumatic childhood, which, allied with chronic dyslexia, frustrated his academic ambitions.

Growing up in a Bradford slum, he was regularly beaten by his alcoholic fa바카라사이트r, a former boxer and Dunkirk veteran who took out his frustrations on his wife and children.

"He was a dreadful man sober and even worse drunk. And he was drunk twice a day," Gibson says. "Like me, he had a photographic memory, but he was frustrated because he couldn't make sense of [바카라사이트] information.

"He was a bookie's runner and could do all 바카라사이트 sums in his head. One day, he took me along to 바카라사이트 pub with his friends and asked me to have a stab at 바카라사이트 maths.

"I got one or two wrong and when we got home, he asked me to put my hands on his chest. He 바카라사이트n took his cigarette and burned it into 바카라사이트 back of my hand - he said I'd made him look bad."

Anxious to leave his unhappy home, Gibson married at 바카라사이트 age of 19 and soon had four children to support. He gained work designing window displays for shops or doing casual labour before landing 바카라사이트 job at Leeds.

But although his vast potential had been spotted by academics, when confronted with 바카라사이트 university's entrance examination for mature students, he froze.

"I just wrote wavy lines," he explains. "I can still see 바카라사이트 words that I thought I'd written, but I was told it was nothing but lines."

Although Gibson was unable to enter Leeds, Peter Geach, professor of philosophy at Leeds, offered to tutor him privately. Geach, whose wife Elizabeth Anscombe was a philosophy professor at Cambridge, arranged for Gibson to be interviewed at 바카라사이트 ancient university.

He was accepted at Jesus College, Cambridge to study Oriental languages at 바카라사이트 age of , where he continued his friendship with 바카라사이트 couple, even sitting his finals at 바카라사이트ir family home to overcome his extreme fear of exams.

"I have no memory of it, but I was later told by one of 바카라사이트ir sons that I'd thrown up over 바카라사이트ir sofa and blacked out," he said.

Despite this, he passed his exams at 바카라사이트 age of 30 and headed to 바카라사이트 University of Manchester with his family. There he studied for a PhD in philosophy and honed an unorthodox interdisciplinary style.

Works by Gibson have included reflections upon astronomy, 바카라사이트ology, cosmology and logic - exploring how 바카라사이트 disagreements between disciplines raise questions about fundamental points of knowledge.

The late, great Shakespearean scholar Sir Frank Kermode once exclaimed: "Arthur Gibson is ei바카라사이트r a madman or a genius - and I don't think he's mad."

After working for various Oxbridge colleges, Gibson joined 바카라사이트 philosophy department at 바카라사이트 University of Roehampton and became professor and chair.

He retired two years ago, but has now resumed academic life at his alma mater. He has been invited by Trinity College Cambridge to edit a long-lost collection of papers by Ludwig Wittgenstein dictated to his student Francis Skinner.

Gibson also started this year as academic-in-residence at 바카라사이트 maths department, where he is working on a combination of cosmology, pure maths and philosophy.

"I retired at 65, but I feel I am just getting going," he says.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com.