Patrick White

As a result of the asthma I was sent to school in the country, and only visited Sydney for brief, violently asthmatic sojourns on my way to a house we owned in the Blue Mountains.

I developed the habit of writing novels behind a closed door, or at my uncle's, on the dining table.

Probably induced by the asthma, I started reading and writing early on, my literary efforts from the age of about nine running chiefly to poetry and plays.

But we need to show that the EU can modernise itself, can adapt to the needs of its citizens, can take their views into account. That will be our ambition for the UK Presidency.

The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.

Australia is a resource-rich nation. We have been good at exploiting our minerals base and agricultural sector for exports.