Brother of the More Famous Jack

by Barbara Trapido

Mothers never believe that you know how to respond to your friends. They are so concerned that you shall not go friendless through this life that they become overprotective in this respect.

I liked the things of the heart. How could I therefore enter into a relationship with a’s, b’s and x’s? It was manifestly true, also, that the girls from my school who went off to university to do sciences were those who couldn’t compete with men for places in History and English. I was, therefore, a humanities bigot. Scratch me and I still am.

‘Why do you knock yourself so much?’ Jonathan said. ‘Isn’t that what women do?’ Jane said.