'In the spring of 2009 I began my biography binge. The conditions were near perfect. The baby still slept during the day, and the toddler would amuse himself for hours in the sandpit. I had a month's annual leave at the end of a five-year contract, and I could afford the time to finally read Edel's Bloomsbury: A House of Lions (Penguin, 1979) outside on the grass. But why was I reading about the lives of others? What was I hoping to find?' (Publication summary)