Book One, Chapter 6 Summary

This chapter moves into third person, telling how Theo sees his diary as a task, not a pleasure. His life is full, but he embraces Xan's idea of having people undertake two weekly training sessions in skills that would help them survive when the population had greatly died out. It is not compulsory, but Theo undertakes two jobs, one at the John Radcliffe Hospital and one doing house maintenance.

It is explained that his full time job is teaching at the university, where the students are either mature-aged or a few former undergraduates who are doing research or taking higher degrees. It is the latter that Theo sees as justifying the university's existence. Theo is submersed as much as he can be in the university culture. He dines twice a week in the Hall, then on Wednesdays he attends...