‘And I tried to learn new languages for places I thought I might visit one day. And I saw my friends – or people I thought were my friends … ’ He hesitated for a moment. ‘And I planned trips. I looked for places I’d never been, things that would frighten me or push me to my limit. I swam the Channel once. I went paragliding. I walked up mountains and skied down them again. Yes –’ he said, as I made to interrupt ‘– I know a lot of these need money, but a lot of them don’t. And besides, how do you think I made money?’
‘Ripping people off in the City?’
‘I worked out what would make me happy, and I worked out what I wanted to do, and I trained myself to do the job that would make those two th
ings happen.’
‘You make it sound so simple.’
‘It is simple,’ he said. ‘The thing is, it’s also a
