A similar instinct for self-preservation was the cause of my first lie. My governess left me alone for half an hour with strict instructions to eat no blackberries during her absence. When she returned I was suspiciously near the brambles. ‘You have been eating blackberries’, she said. ‘I have not’, I replied. ‘Put out your tongue!’ she said. Shame overwhelmed me, and I felt utterly wicked.

Pass me one of those whatsits, will you?

In some religions, good and evil are considered diametric opposites.

A Spanish novel writer who cannot be accused of undue sex reticenses is Vicente Blasco Ibanez, …