I spent much of the evening listening to H on the phone telling me how he didn’t have time to do anything. Actually, he was getting a lot of things off his chest—he is under pressure—but I did have to keep the smiles at the contradiction to myself. H doesn’t understand that because he thinks he knows what the problems with the business are, that doesn’t mean that me and M do too—it’s not really in his personality.
So we’re putting the pressure on. Things are going our way, he is understanding the problem, and, more to the point, sees the purpose of the solutions even if he doesn’t agree with them (yet). H managed to chat halfway into Crow Road—the new BBC2 screenplay of a novel from my favourite author, Iain Banks, and I’d got as far as turning the TV and recognising the main character when M phoned and another long discussion ensued.
I’ll just have to read the book again. I can see I’m not going to watch the program.