("Spiderweb")

Penelope Lively's observations about youthful friendships rang particularly true after I joined up our high school classmates' Weibo chat group.

• This unfamiliar view of greenery, pink earth and the long slack lines of hills
• A rather stiff man , always apparently on his best behavior, perhaps because he knew of no other kind.
• The world is out there, richly stocked and inviting observations.
• The relationship was diminishing to one of determined bonhomie whenever they passed in the lane.
• They are caught up in the intimacy of being young and about the same business in same the place at the same time - an association as intense in its way as love or marriage, and one which quite eclipses later forms of friendship.
• Stella and Nadine are still within reach of their former selves.


• We are in each other's heads for ever, not as we are now but as we were then.
• She watched their mother all the time, to see what might be going to happen - like people watch the weather forecast because there's fuck all you can do about it but you might as well know.