Of Love And Asthma

Ferdinand Mount

From Shelf: The Hawthornden Prize (Past Winners)

The narrator, Gus, first meets Joe, a successful entrepreneur, when they are fellow patients at the seaside clinic run by Dr Maintenon-Smith, the self-styled Napoleon of Asthma. Gus is betrayed and humiliated as he follows his friend, wheeze for wheeze, through his giddy rise and even giddier fall.

We should have awakened to the sun streaming in from across the valley, but this is not a story about things as they should be, and it was a dark blustery morning, blasting the blossom off the may. Only in the shelter of the high hedgerows down in the lanes streaked with red mud was there ant escape from the wind and the rain. Just as we were putting on our boots, I pinned down the unidentified fear of the night before. I had slept without my asthma pillow. It was not the first time . But this was the first time I had slept without it and not properly noticed until the morning after. This must, I though, be love. Would it be punished to?

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