Eithne has always wanted to achieve things young. She was first published aged 11, receiving £20 for a poem. At 21, she joined The Sunday Times, but took a break after a year to live in Paris and write.

Despite all of the advances we have made, or imagine we have made, in trying to understand each other, two of this week’s events are chilling reminders of how fate is such a dominant, almost insurmountable, force in young lives and how some individual and social behaviour is utterly incomprehensible.

CHILDREN yesterday formed a guard of honour at the funeral of a school friend who died in a road tragedy last week.