He provides for them but they want even more. They are all rich – by anyone’s standards other than their own.

Evidently she gave a really good talk. I think she might benefit from doing more of that and less writing – but she is hell-bent on leaving her printed words to posterity. I have my doubts that posterity will be very interested: she does not appear to have the gift to write in one sentence what she tends to write in six.

You can’t. You just do it. However, one basic principle is to focus attention on what people are hearing (look at them and you will see) rather than on what you want to say.

She attributes all her problems to a road accident some years ago. She may be right. The physical issues have resolved but the emotional trauma persists. Hopefully some EMDR will deal with that. We’ll see.

She lost her mother. It devastated her. It affected her personal life severely because her mother was her closest companion. It affected her work because all the daily irritations became less acceptable. It affected her health. Every aspect of her life has been affected. It should be remembered that bereavement is itself a killer: there is a significantly increased risk of dying – of physical illness – in the early years after a loved one has died.
She needs sympathetic understanding and support from her friends and also from her employers.

Just about everything that could go wrong for her has gone wrong for her – divorce, major illness, insufficient work, vindictive ex-husband, challenging children, money worries.
I endeavoured to help her by focussing on what she has left – her values and principles, decency and honour. To lose them really would be wretched.

The vote at the end of a parliamentary debate is reported as either the eyes or the noes having it. Who cares about that? What matters is that eyes should sparkle with love and enthusiasm. Parliament wouldn’t know about that.

He had never got over killing a man twenty years ago in the course of his professional work. Cast psycho-dramatically in the role of God, he learned to forgive himself: the daily burden of two decades was lifted.

She’s lost a third of her income and she’s feeling the pinch. She is still very well padded financially so I doubt that she feels all that much – but how would I know? Maybe it’s all relative.

In a fit of anger, she told her son what her deceased husband thought of him.