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in. in my shoes, I was literally towering over him. I grasped his tiny hand in mine as I gave him a big smile while trying not to register my shock at his diminutive size. All I had heard from Jeremy was ‘he’s shorter than me’, which now I considered to be a vast understatement.
    ‘What brings you here today?’ Gerard asked in his soft, if slightly feminine voice that suited his tiny frame. I replied that I had brought along Jeremy’s laptop as I knew he would be desperate for it and although Gerard continued to smile, his eyes hardened. With a hint of a sneer, he said to Jeremy, ‘What a wonderful wife you’ve got.’
    I felt a little disconcerted as there was definitely a tinge of envy in his voice. Jeremy had heard Gerard frequently arguing with his wife Jo and I guessed that all may not have been well in his personal life.
    After a few short exchanges, Gerard left us in order to answer the telephone and I was able to study him more closely. He looked like a little boy in jeans and a shirt. However, this vertically challenged man harboured a volcanic temper that he had no hesitation about using on anyone, including customers.
    By the beginning of 2002, the wedding business had got much busier and Jeremy found that by working at Gerard’s shop during the weekdays he could not get through the editing of videos just in the evenings alone as he was now filming most weekends. Serious consideration had to be made about working from home again as business was increasing by the month and we did not want to turn away any new bookings.
    Jeremy decided to tell Gerard that the arrangement they had wouldhave to come to an end, but that he would continue to work at the shop until Gerard found someone else to replace him. Gerard had already realised that Jeremy’s business had made significant growth over the last few months but, not wanting to lose him (he had been enjoying leaving early each day and having cover for holiday), came up with a further proposition. He asked Jeremy if he would like to run London Video Productions from Video Action’s premises, which meant that he could advertise his company on the outside walls, set up an editing suite at the back of the shop and continue to be paid a retainer. Also, Gerard wanted Jeremy to do more than answer the phones for Video Action, he wanted him to become part of his business and be involved in selling. Of course, this arrangement was beneficial for both of them and as Jeremy’s business would be installed within Gerard’s premises, to cover himself he insisted that the new arrangement be formulated by way of a contract. Gerard readily agreed and so the working relationship continued.
    Now easily getting through his work each day, Jeremy became more involved with Video Action’s business, which he enjoyed as well as rapidly picking up quite a bit of knowledge about filming equipment, such as professional camcorders, editing and sound equipment, tripods and accessories.
    For some reason, Gerard’s behaviour started to become unpredictable. He would veer from calm and rational to erratic and abusive in seconds, and sometimes he would become quite paranoid. There was a time when he was having one of his frequent arguments with a customer over the phone and he caught Jeremy looking at him. Gerard stopped shouting at his customer, put them on hold and calmly asked Jeremy would he mind not looking at him while he was on the phone as it made him feel uneasy. As Jeremy turned away, Gerard returned to the angry tirade on his customer.
    Word was starting to get around that there was a more professionaland polite person to speak to at Video Action, which meant that customers and suppliers were actually asking for Jeremy. Gerard even joked on one occasion that Jeremy was making more sales than he did during the day and this became more evident when he went on holiday to Dubai. However, just before finalising his business and departing for two weeks, Gerard appeared a little