Our Family Arrived In England In 1960.

We All Live Inside Bodies That Will Deteriorate. But When You Look At Human Beings, They're Capable Of Very Decent Things: Love, Loyalty. When Time Is Running Out, They Don't Care About Possessions Or Status. They Want To Put Things Right If They've Done Wrong.

But Then, I Suppose, When With The Benefit Of Hindsight One Begins To Search One's Past For Such 'turning Points', One Is Apt To Start Seeing Them Everywhere.

I Saw A New World Coming Rapidly. More Scientific, Efficient, Yes. More Cures For The Old Sicknesses. Very Good. But A Harsh, Cruel, World. And I Saw A Little Girl, Her Eyes Tightly Closed, Holding To Her Breast The Old Kind World, One That She Knew In Her Heart Could Not Remain, And She Was Holding It And Pleading, Never To Let Her Go.

I Don't Think It's Any Fun, Even If You Are One Of The Most Respected Authors In The World Like Margaret Atwood, To Keep Being Nominated And Not Win.

I Half Closed My Eyes And Imagined This Was The Spot Where Everything I'd Ever Lost Since My Childhood Had Washed Up, And I Was Now Standing Here In Front Of It, And If I Waited Long Enough, A Tiny Figure Would Appear On The Horizon Across The Field And Gradually Get Larger Until I'd See It Was Tommy, And He'd Wave, And Maybe Even Call.