shootingstar
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- Nov 17, 2022
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(Martin was a friend of William. They were choristers at the King's College in Cambridge)
(William pondering. H and C are initial letters of a mnemonic for the activities of the students at the Thames College of Embalming)
Sometimes as he finished up on the H and started on the C and found he instinctively knew what colour eyeshadow to put on, how much little blusher, what nail varnish, William wondered if he was a poofter after all - that's what they were called at his new school. Sometimes he wished he was. He could be like his uncle and Howard. He could get Martin back - he need never have lost him.
(From A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Part III Family Business, chapter 36)
Is "he need never have lost him" a form of backshift or conditional or is this use of needn't/need never have + -ed form a set phrase - 'cause - I read "he need never have lost him" as "he would never have had to lose him"?
(William pondering. H and C are initial letters of a mnemonic for the activities of the students at the Thames College of Embalming)
Sometimes as he finished up on the H and started on the C and found he instinctively knew what colour eyeshadow to put on, how much little blusher, what nail varnish, William wondered if he was a poofter after all - that's what they were called at his new school. Sometimes he wished he was. He could be like his uncle and Howard. He could get Martin back - he need never have lost him.
(From A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Part III Family Business, chapter 36)
Is "he need never have lost him" a form of backshift or conditional or is this use of needn't/need never have + -ed form a set phrase - 'cause - I read "he need never have lost him" as "he would never have had to lose him"?
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