dipping into john mortimer’s memoirs i find an account of jeremy hutchinson (who had been junior counsel to gerald gardiner in the lady chatterley trial) defending in another obscenity trial a book involving oral sex. margaret drabble had been called as expert witness to give her opinion on the literary merits of the book, and the judge had “unwisely asked her, ’why is it important to read about oral sex now? we’ve managed to get on for a couple of thousand years without it.’” misinterpreting drabble’s silence as a loss for words the judge moved in, insisting she answer the question. to which she replied:

‘i’m sorry your lordship, i was trying to remember the relevant lines in ovid.’