Simon could hardly explain that he had attacked Sidney because he was too scared to attack Barry Spence.

He saw the moist tenderness of Daniel's lips afresh. He wanted to feel it again.

Simon had never dreamt that he would ever be on the stage receiving the plaudits of the entire school.

Simon was fighting against being queer; all the social and professional pressures were against it even though homosexual acts between consenting adults in private were about to be decriminalised.

Simon closed his mind to the past because of the pain of losing it and the future for fear of facing it.