I met Sue through the Reader Organisation, where she works as project manager and facilitator of shared reading groups. In a course for volunteers on how to lead reading groups, she related to us her decisive encounter with a poem by Matthew Arnold, The Buried Life. As she read parts of it out loud, it was evident that her memories of the reading experience were still salient, bringing tears to her eyes. I felt really moved by the poem and the concerns it raises. Afterwards I told her about my project, and asked her whether she be willing to take part. The interview took place in Sue's home. She made us cups of tea and we sat down in her lounge to talk.

Sue: I was thinking that in a way – because this started from when you were on the Read to Lead course, when we read an extract of it, from ‘but often in the din of strife’ – that that was kind of the story, you know, so it's a shame that the tape wasn't on then, really. I felt full of feeling at that time. Because we were talking about this issue of breakthroughs, and I still felt strongly about it; it had such an impact on me. I can't remember what I said.

Thor: But the feeling was very present then.

Sue: Yes. This poem, I first heard it on my Read to Lead course which was in January 2009. The group facilitator read it out loud to the group. I can't remember how many of us there were, there might have been sixteen of us or something like that. It took place in a beautiful manor. It was just a lovely place to stay, it was a five-day residential course, so we were there for five days together. I don't know what day this happened, it wasn't early on actually, it was quite a bit late through the course. And I just really, from the moment she started reading, that very first sort of section, I had a strong, strong feeling for it. And I think partly that was because it just felt so current, even though I know he was writing in eighteen hundred something. I don't know when he was writing, but it's quite a long time ago.