Was he more himself when he was with Annik, or more himself when he was pissing about with us? There’s the eternal question. All I can remember is that with her he became a bit . . . Well, Barney probably put it best when he said “poncey.” With us: chasing groupies and pissing in ashtrays and looking at turds in toilets. With her: talking about Burroughs and Dostoyevsky. The perfect friend or partner for Ian would have combined all those things, but if that person exists they were nowhere near our social scene, so he had to be the chameleon, moving from one to another.
