It is the hardest parenting I have ever done.

Every instinct I have says close the gap, protect him, make it smooth.

And what I have learned from watching my son handle it about nine times is that a child can carry his father’s unreliability perfectly well.

What he cannot carry is his mother’s version of it, because his mother’s version keeps changing, and eventually he works out that the person lying to him is the one in the room.

He writes to Julian.