ABSTRACT
The invitation seemed harmless enough, and not so different from dozens which had arrived before it. It was early 1981. I received a phone call from Sister Marie de Montfort, the head of the speech therapy course at Trinity College, Dublin. Would I be willing to come over and give a public lecture on the subject of language handicap? They were in the early stages of developing their new degree course, so they were, and they’d been thinking it might be good to put on some talks of general interest, indeed, and as I’d written a few books about the subject, well, sure, it might bring in some of the public, as well as the students, which wouldn’t be bad . . . and apart from anything else, it was ages since we’d last met, and wouldn’t it be a chance to see how the new course was getting on, well now, wouldn’t it? Would I think about it, at least?
