Memories of office life: I hid under my desk, screaming down the phone at my husband

New to marriage and my job, an almighty row threatened both. But my colleagues' stoic determination to ignore the cacophony was the silver lining

Having personal conversations at work, in the days before mobile phones existed, could be perilous. Usually, you had to duck into an unoccupied desk space or wait until everyone was at lunch. But I worked on a trading floor - each desk crammed next to another, with everyone eating lunch there, too. Perilous didn't begin to cover it.

In addition, phones rang constantly, people shouted across the room or at each other, and market information was broadcast over the Tannoy while overhead TVs blared CNBC and Bloomberg News. Private conversations had to wait.