One of the pleasures of returning to work at the museum last week (and there have to be pleasures in returning to work otherwise we’ll all go crazy) was to be surrounded again by its many treasures: pictures, sculptures, textiles shimmering with gold and silver thread, ceramics of miraculous delicacy. It is a daily treat …
You know those terrible dreams where you’re doing something for which you are completely unprepared, amid dazzling publicity, in front of an audience full of experts, where your crippling anxiety grows more and more unbearable until, with your utter inadequacy disastrously exposed and your naked, shambling body burning with shame, fear and embarrassment you are …