The Uncommon Reader

by Alan Bennett

And through it all she could hear the voice of Ivy Compton-Burnett, unsentimental, severe and wise. She could hear her voice as clearly as earlier in the evening she had heard the voice of Mozart.

However’ – and here she stood up – ‘we must not lose our sense of priorities and this is a party after all, so before I continue shall we now have some champagne?’