It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all

摘要

Saving the crushed ambition and gnashing of teeth among the also-rans of course, there's nothing quite like an awards evening and all its concomitant trappings for instilling a sense of occasion: the fancy-dress glamour of a dinner suit or posh frock; the jaunty stroll down Park Lane at dusk, and the stumbling return trip past midnight; and the mispronunciations of the faux celebrity.Apart from crowning my last term at pre-preparatory school by romping away with the prize for collecting the most wild flowers - in the days when uprooting the occasional primrose didn't constitute killing the planet - I've never actually been summoned to make that adrenaline-pumping climb onto the stage to receive an award, so I've no way of knowing how it must feel. Pretty terrific, no doubt: all the more so when it entails beating stiff competition.