Maria Macdonald

Maria is the lynchpin of the English and Comparative Literature department. Staff and students alike attest to how unfailingly helpful and warm she is, and I lose count of the number of times over the last 15 years that she's cheerfully and unfussily dealt with other people's mistakes and saved our skin. We frankly take for granted her efficiency, reliability and good humour, and it's about time she was recognised for the superb colleague she is. Maria 'goes the extra mile' in another way too - while the rest of us are eating and chatting our way through lunchbreak, she is running, often in training for marathons which raise funds for charity. It's hard to think of a more appropriate representative of Goldsmiths for the procession.