“... notion that ethics is a branch of practical philosophy. Writings about ethics are not, as Aristotle said, ‘undertaken for the sake of understanding . . . or in order to know what goodness is but to become good men’. Literature is important in modern versions of this view because it offers concrete examples of virtuous behaviour and because it ...”

“... I had unfinished business with my mother; I told Gillian I needed time to catch up on Plato and Aristotle, but secretly I had applied for a place at teacher training college in Edinburgh and was planning to spend the rest of my grant there.Even now that I have, unlike Rose, attained the oldish age and physical invisibility she longed for, I still struggle ...”