I was around 15 when I first wanted to compete in an Olympics. I even remember the first time I got to wear a GB kit as a junior. I've even kept it. It's in my mum's loft somewhere, probably gone mouldy by now.
Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.
Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately linked to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody.