Identical twins

1) In 1955, whilst still at grammar school, I was chosen to represent Derbyshire Grammar Schools at soccer on a brief tour of Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. We pupils were accommodated overnight (one night only) in the homes of our opponents; my host was a boy, a total stranger, named John French. Thus, I encountered John for just a few hours in his parents' home and on the soccer field. A year or so later, my identical twin brother Michael was accosted in Paris (where he was on a student exchange, or something of the sort) by this same John French who clearly thought it was me. That incident - which I have told and retold throughout my life whenever talk of coincidences arises - remains the greatest coincidence I have - vicariously - experienced (though there have been, and continue to be, many other instances of 'mistaken identity', since we remain identical in appearance, gesture, vocal inflection etc even into our 70s). 2) In 1963, when my wife and I came to live in the village of Bolehill, near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, we discovered that the female living next door, and the female living in the opposite house, had the same bithday as mine - July 11. This seemed quite uncanny, since I already shared a birthday with my wife's maternal grandmother, and with the male spouse of our best friends (not to mention the obvious sharing of birthday with my twin brother). John Neaum