He had never contemplated his own death. He was certain that the usual associations – dark, cold, silent, decay – were irrelevant. These could all be felt and understood. Death lay on the far side of darkness, beyond even nothing. Like all his friends he was dismissive of the afterlife. They sat through the compulsory […]

Here was an entry – a serious one – which he hadn’t crossed out in years. He couldn’t remember where it came from. He never recorded the writer or the source: he didn’t want to be bullied by reputation; truth should stand by itself, clear and unsupported. This one went: ’In my opinion, every love, […]

That year, 1972, was just the beginning. When I started reading the paper the three-day week, the next power cuts, the government’s fifth state of emergency were not so far ahead of us. I believed what I read, but it seemed remote. Cambridge looked much the same, and so did the woods around the Cannings’ […]