I embraced Henry James’s fight against complacency | Colm Toíbín

The complexities of The Ambassadors made me see that there's no need to settle for anything small

On 23 January 1895, after his play Guy Domville had failed on the London stage, Henry James, in his early 50s, wrote in his Notebook: "I take up my old pen again - the pen of all my old unforgettable efforts and sacred struggles. To myself - today - I need say no more. Large and full and high the future still opens. It is now indeed that I may do the work of my life."

I like these words. For anyone approaching middle age, or wading through it, they may be the most useful words anyone has written, words that if we repeat often enough we may even start to act upon. Words that could change our lives, or the long sweet stretch of it that is left.