Three weeks ago, John had gone down to Cambridge, where his old friend Mark Ludding was professor of philosophy. The two of them had walked and talked, in their usual way. And then, after taking tea in Mark’s study at Newnham, where Mark’s wife, Louisa, was mistress, John had produced a copy of his A Problem in Greek Ethics, privately printed, passing it in its wrapping over the cups still standing on the desk. It was something remarkable—he was not being immodest in thinking so, or not only. The book was an account of Greek love. Of love between men, love of men, as it was practiced in and
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