Who do you think you are, Jane Eyre? Grow up. Be sensible. Don't get carried away.

No, friends were like clothes: fine while they lasted but eventually they wore thin or you grew out of them.

And it was at moments like this that she had to remind herself that she was in love with him, or had once been in love with him, a long time ago.

I had made this mistake once before, on a school trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum, when I followed a sign marked WOMEN, thinking it was an exhibition on the changing roles of women in society, and actually ended up standing in the ladies' toilets.

The fact was I loved my wife to a degree that I found impossible to express, and so rarely did.

These days the nights and mornings have a tendency to bleed into one another.

These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through.