Blog
Matthew Taylor
Vanity is a funny thing. There is a passage in ‘Swann in Love’ by Marcel Proust in which he describes how people can be vain in surprising ways: the maestro orchestral conductor doesn’t mind you criticising his recent concert performance but if you were to question his cooking or gardening he would take terrible offence. I guess it’s to do with how much security we feel in our talents. Perhaps we most need praise where we feel least self-assured.