Across the table from one another as a candle gutters down like an exorcism, Sister Clodagh and Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) double one another like chess queens, the white-wimpled sister superior with her book of prayers, the ex-nun in dark crimson with with her red, red lipstick—she makes herself up with such simple motions, like a nightmare where commonplace objects assume an inexplicable dread. She has buried herself in fantasies until she's mad with them, sick as a rose.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

I am delighted to have played some small part in your acquisition of A Canterbury Tale; and dead chuffed to have so fine a poem for a godschild.

Nine