Wilfred Bion had become something of a cult figure before his death in 1979. Since then interest in his work, particularly with groups, has continued to grow. Its very difficulty has proved something of a challenge. Known to have been analysed by Melanie Klein, yet also fiercely independent, what was he like as a person?

His autobiography The Long Week-End, covering the first part of his life, is both revealing and concealing. Psychoanalysts are notoriously nervous about exposing their early lives to public scrutiny, and Bion's meagre account of his childhood is maddeningly elusive. He was born in India, where his father was an engineer who had something or other to do with canals. There is a shadowy younger sister from whom he kept his distance. Bion and his father seem to have been an embarrassment to each