And a terrific sense of mortality, which is like a blessing almost: you suddenly realise what life is about.'

After all, she was learning the lesson that millions of women have to learn before they quite realise what life is.

It was a shared bottle of wine as a student in Oxford that made Jancis Robinson realise what life was all about.

And then-thenI realised what life may be.

'Doesn't he realise what life is like in England today?'