those who teach, fly

William Shaw points out that Helen Simpson's short story Tipping Point has been published online.

It's a sharp monologue by an English academic whose relationship with his German girlfriend Angelika has recently ended. He could never adopt her green principles. In his world, flying is part of teaching.

'In September I'm attending a weekend conference on Performance Art at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. I'm not going by coach. There's a seminar on Storm und Drang in Tokyo this autumn, as well as my Cardiff-based sister's wedding party in Seville. After that there's an invitation to the Sydney Festival to promote my new book, and the usual theatre conference at Berkeley in spring. All paid for, of course, except the return ticket to Seville, which cost me precisely £11 - just about manageable even on an academic's meagre stipend.'