The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

life is only a series of days. You can’t control more than a single day.

Femi’s a surgeon, Angus works for his dad’s development firm, Duncan’s a venture capitalist – whatever that means – and Pete’s in advertising, which probably doesn’t help his coke habit.

But it’s possible to hate your body when you’re thin, too. To feel like it’s kept secrets from you. To feel like it’s let you down.

Just because the rest of us don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves, just because we have found a way of managing our feelings – it doesn’t mean they’re not there.

It would be out there in the world: what I’ve done.

Nowhere on earth could possibly live up to those halcyon days. But that’s nostalgia for you, the tyranny of those memories of childhood that feel so golden, so perfect.

‘Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo!’

‘Fac fortia et patere! Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo!’

In my experience those who have the greatest respect for the rules also take the most enjoyment in breaking them.

when the worst has happened, you rather lose your fear of anything else.