Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow. Neel Mukherjee’s opening story in his novel ‘Choice’ has helped me realise that, if to develop as people is to value the uncertain ethics of all decisions and choices, it must be our decision not to become a gay male couple … More Neel Mukherjee’s opening story in his novel ‘Choice’ has helped me realise that, if to develop as people is to value the uncertain ethics of all decisions and choices, it must be our decision not to become a gay male couple pioneering adoptive parenthood & that this helped us grow together.

Describe something you learned in high school. Remember, of course, when you read this that I started ‘High School’ [not a phrase used in the UK then much] in 1966 and at a Northern semi-rural UK grammar school where conventions and ideological rigidity passed themselves off as the nature of things. But the idea of … More That men also make up their faces.

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind. The ‘first-thing-that-comes-to-mind’ game is one sometimes used in psychoanalysis to find out how symptomatic connections might occur in the mind that reveal something of how that same mind is structured. Since minds are wily and use both conscious and unconscious filters to hide thoughts felt … More The first shall be last. No creation ex nihilo.

What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why? I would not visit the Tundra in Alaska. I have not Jamie’s  grit or the steel-edged beauty of her imagination. But in her I can see a reflection of it. The feelings it raises are complicated. Of course, worthwhile experience always is. I … More Kathleen Jamie chose to visit the Alaskan Tundra and help with an archaeological dig. Would I?

What is your favorite restaurant? The Duke still exists on Duke Street, as does Davy Byrne’s eatery, but I do not know if The Duke in which we know Joyce dined regularly was also the ‘Burton restaurant’ referred to Episode  8 of James Joyce’s Ulysses. That episode is usually known as the Laestrygonians, since it … More Join me and James Joyce at Burton’s Restaurant,  Duke Street, Dublin. Let your gorge rise.