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.

And I definitely wanted to be a writer, but I felt a duty now, having used up those educational resources, I felt a duty to the church and my parents to become a priest.

But I was also a brat. I used to belong to a gang that went looking for fights with other gangs.

Coitus is random, children are definite.

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

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

He was one of those men who, even in the years of peace, would have advised his congregation that while God may well be honored by the inflexibility of the pious, he might also be honored by the flexibility of the sensible.