Sequence of tenses

[Humble]

Hi,
Please, which is better:
1. When Jim left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.
2. When Jim had left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.

In most cases when I’m torn between two choices either turns out to be correct. Again?

Tnx for your help.

[curmudgeon]

Hi,
Please, which is better:
1. When Jim left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.
2. When Jim had left I remembered I had forgotten to give back his book.

In most cases when I’m torn between two choices either turns out to be correct. Again?

Tnx for your help.

In my opinion, neither sentence is very good, although both are understandable.

When you feel ambivalent about which way to say something it sometimes helps to reconstruct the sentence.

Try - After Jim had left I realised I had forgotten to return his book

[Humble]

Yes, that's better. Thanks, Curm.