‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ So runs the opening line of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel, The Go-Between, a reminder, it transpires, that childhood is not without embarrassment, love is rarely straightforward and society’s mores are forever changing.
The past, many would accept, is also an imperfect country, one where mistakes are inevitable, wires get entangled and opportunities – for both good and ill – go begging. So, why do so many, when looking back, send up howls of ‘I should have known better’ or ‘I should have done better’?