She looks at the young woman on the doorstep, the huge pregnancy distorting the ribs of her knitted sweater. Her sleeves are rolled up to her elbows, displaying goose-fleshed skin on her forearms. ‘You’re cold,’ she says. ‘Why don’t you come inside?’

The girl looks oddly relieved. She reaches an arm out and checks her watch.

‘Thank you, but I think I should get going. We’re just passing through, I only stopped by on the off-chance. Could you tell him that Sophie Witrand remembers his lessons very fondly? Tell him that I studied Classics at UCL. Tell him I read his book. Tell him I … actually, just tell him that.’

Thank You

Andy Pierre, Ruari Owen, Diana Moss. Katie Greening and Tannith Perry. Olly Rowse, Lettice Franklin, Peter Straus and Clare Reihill. Kate Tolley, Kate Gaughran, Rebecca McEwan, Anne O’Brien, Luke Brown. Simukai Chigudu, for the rap. Polly Wilkinson, Gemma Cusworth, Hannah Richards. Emma Shearn, Emma Boswood, James Chapman, Liza Rogers, Mark Wright, Natalie Hind. Steven McGregor, Jaspreet Singh Boparai, Philip Hancock, Christopher Reid, Keiren Phelan. My family, and Bas.

About the Author

CLAIRE LOWDON grew up in Wiltshire. She read English at New College, Oxford and interned at the New York Review of Books before becoming Assistant Editor at Areté, where she still works. She has written for Areté, the TLS, the Sunday Times, Literary Review, the Spectator, the New Statesman, Prospect and the Observer.

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