Can you get my bag from the living-room, please?

In the latter half of May, reading became difficult because of uncontrollable hurry and perseveration: once he had started to read he would read faster and faster without regard for the sense or syntax, and unable to stop this festinant reading he would have to shut the book with a snap after each sentence or paragraph, so that he could digest its sense before rushing ahead.

Thus, he exalts as a means of republican cohesion, as the unshakeable basis of the modern nation what he calls manly love, a sort of Achillean friendship, but at the same time it is this love, this passionate friendship that he sings.

‘Your turn today, Lil,’ he said. ‘Fish and chips for me. No, wait, I′ll have savs, faggots and pease pudding.’