I ask her what she gets out of teaching – it must be something, since she certainly doesn’t need the money – but she doesn’t think of it in such mercenary terms. “Well, it’s not that I really analyse any of this,” she says. “I’ve been teaching quite a long while. I have had a succession of cats, and it’s not that I feel like I’m getting that much out of Cherie [her current cat]. It’s sort of part of my life. It’s part of my actual life, and I’d miss it if I didn’t do it. I think we sort of create personalities that have certain woven fabrics, you know, like a mosaic or something.” As she says this, Oates gestures her arms as if working a loom. “You’re made up of these 10 different things that all come together, and if you lose one of them, you’re really sort of astonished and devastated.”