Like what, exactly? Like always ready to surprise you on the stairs; like wishing you had only known; like wanting it to go on for rather longer. This issue of Granta contains lessons drawn from the muddle of experience. With:


Lynn Barber on the conman who seduced her, and then her parents


Kathryn Chetkovich on living with envy, bred by a partner who is more successful than she is


Simon Gray on smoking, absent friends, getting old, smoking, and why Gary Cooper walked the way he did


Graham Robb on how we tried to spot homosexuality, in ourselves and others.


And in fiction:


Nell Freudenberger: the tutor's story


J. Robert Lennon: look what the cat brought home (sex)


Jayne Anne Phillips: the Termite's birthday


and Paul Murray


Plus: 'The Steam People' , a picture essay by Robin Grierson on the glorious machines of old England, and their lovers.