sixteen

I thought the meeting with Graham and James was strange, but seemed to be successful, as far as it went.

Graham appeared much less interested in the strategy compared to earlier meetings and James sat through the two hours we all spent together saying almost nothing.

We started with Graham asking me how things were going. Mainly for James’s benefit, I summarized the work that Graham had already heard about in our meetings on Monday. I then talked about my lunch with Marianne and the importance of language, without yet mentioning the comments that had so inflamed Christine to the point of wondering whether to resign. Finally, I said that James and I had met the previous afternoon and that we were both agreed on the need for the strategy and the basic way forward – looking at James to cut in with his own version of events, but he just nodded without saying a word.

Christine talked to them about the investment plans that she had worked on with Harry and they both...