Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.

I was brought up among the sort of self-important women who had a husband as one has an alibi.

In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are too busy winning the game.

Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.

I am 46, and have been for some time past.

A complete woman is probably not a very admirable creature. She is manipulative, uses other people to get her own way, and works within whatever system she is in.

That sun, that light had faded, and she had faded with them. Now she was as grey as the season itself.