i love james thurber, and those fables.s called further fables of our time, itjust has these little bits... i think a lot of comedians are highly intelligent and highly thoughtful people and, obviously, he was a great writer. but really it is, and i think life is a bit of a quest to find out who you are, and what you're doing and why. and i think, certainly in my case, because i had quite an upsetting experience when my father committed suicide, when i was 17, 18, i sort of feel i've been on the run ever since. if something like that happens in your family, you are a bit apt to go off the rails, but also work a bit harder than anybody else to try and prove you are somebody because it's such a sot of confidence zapper, i think. maybe we could get a reading from you of the start of the book, or when you're talking about... in many ways it was a happy childhood, quite a privileged childhood, in fact, but you write very movingly. and perhaps you could read a little bit of how your mother protected you from some of the things th