She had been depressed for years and now we finally knew why. We found her in her usual spot in bed, cradling a large green cloth-bound book.

It was all too apparent that she had never really recovered from the high-spot of her promising career in the early 1990s as she clung on to the second volume of her PhD thesis, unable to let it out of her sight, in a fashion reminiscent of Miss Haversham’s enduring attachment to her wedding dress.