It is Sunday afternoon and I am at a lunch in the country. Most of the people around the table are friends – some of whom I have not seen for a long while – but there are also a few people I don’t know. Conversation is varied and quite loud. I am not normally very good at these things, but I’ve had two glasses of red wine and I’ll tell you what: it’s alarming how charming I feel.
I am in the middle of being interesting about something when I notice that people at the other end of the table are trying to attract my attention. Perhaps, I think, they want me to say my interesting thing louder, so that everyone can benefit. This would be unprecedented, but you never know.
