England's not a bad country. It's just a mean, cold, ugly, divided, tired, clapped-out, post-imperial, post-industrial slag-heap covered in polystyre… - Margaret Drabble

Perhaps the rare and simple pleasure of being seen for what one is compensates for the misery of being it.

'In my business,' she said, 'I don't think one has to retire. One gets wiser and wiser all the time. Until one dies. Dies into full knowledge.'

I confidently predict the collapse of capitalism and the beginning of history. Something will go wrong in the machinery that converts money into money, the banking system will collapse totally, and we will be left having to barter to stay alive. Those who can dig in their garden will have a better chance than the rest. I'll be all right; I've got a few veg.