Just remember, Braithwaite. While you were learning to be a fool at Oxford I was learning to kill men. And I learned well.

The class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat

It's tough to try to come back from 0-2 in Class D. It would definitely be a struggle. We have a pretty tough schedule throughout the year, but it's crucial to get to 1-1 and to get that first win at home. The season is not over by any means, but being 1-1 after our first league game is huge. It's a big game for us.

Particularly with middle-class people, self-absorption is a struggle.

But fate, as Merlin always taught us, is inexorable. Life is a jest of the Gods, Merlin liked to claim, and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh, he once told me, or else you'll just weep yourself to death.

I remember laughing at that moment, and I remember my son frowning at me in puzzlement. What I remember best of all, though, was the sudden certainty that the gods were with me, that they would fight for me, that my sword would be their sword. ‘We’re going to win,’ I told my son. I felt as if Odin or Thor had touched me. I had never felt more alive and never felt more certain. I knew there would be no more mistakes and that this was no dream.
I had come to Bebbanburg and Bebbanburg would be mine.