Thomas was my true name but everyone knew me as Mick, except my mother, who knew me as definitely Michael.

Australia integrated the - brought on the ships and unleashed in the society the dogs of sectarianism, which had existed in other places - in Glasgow, in Liverpool and of course in Ireland, north and south.

And I found both literature and the church very dramatic presences in the world of the 1950s.

It was so like old times that Henry found himself smiling down at Olek and Mance, playing to her, capable of ignoring the rest. It did seem for those seconds that the earth had at last been pacified by music.

So I was very close to ordination. I was delighted to be ordained a deacon, which is the last step between, before becoming a priest. But then it all fell apart.

Personal finances are like people’s personal health, crucial and tragic to the sufferer but tedious to the listener.

It's only when you abandon your ambitions that they become possible.