Meanwhile...

...Auntie is also busy with academic work, in pursuit of which some hours are spent in study, attending lectures, reading, pondering, writing...post-graduate academic work is enormously satisfying but is also a challenge. Our home has always been crammed with books, at times to the point of absurdity. Recently a bookshelf became detached from the wall, unable to carry any more weight...

One book has a cherished place: it's a Bible, and would in any case be given special status on that account. But it was placed in my hands by my husband after a visit to Rome with the words "Look inside!" and, on the first page, it carries our names and the signature of (now Saint) John Paul.

I have consulted this Bible - it's a paperback, handy size, good translation - a great deal. But I sometimes feel that perhaps I really shouldn't, and it should be kept safely as something to be treated with special care rather than subjected to everyday use...it is kept on the sideboard, along with a great range of family photographs, including one of Jamie meeting St JP on the occasion on which the Bible was signed...