A life is not ‘how it was’ but how it was interpreted and reinterpreted, told and retold.

JEROME BRUNER

 

… and desire had entered this monastic, this boyhood bed.

JAMES BALDWIN

 

No other English monk of the twelfth century
so lingers in the memory… he escapes
from his age, though most typical of it, and
speaks directly to us … of his restless
search for One to whom he might give the
full strength of his love.

DAVID KNOWLES

 

Such atrocities were the talk of Bristol
… horrible facts about the trade were
in everybody’s mouth.

PETER FRYER

 

But only those do we call friends to whom we can fearlessly entrust our heart and all its secrets…

AELRED OF RIEVAULX

 

However closely the narrative may fit the facts the fictional process has been at work.

BRUCE CHATWIN