Aoife Clifford

So that is one that I have actually bought for people during this time just to give them a break from the everyday.

Because she did American Wife, which was sort of an exploration of an alternative life of Laura Bush, which was also excellent.

So Curtis Sidenfeld, I think, is an author that would be worth just visiting anyway during these times just because she's funny and witty and fantastic.

Yes, can't wait for that one.

Jean Bennett is a guide in the wildlife park that you mentioned there.

Her job is to drive around the zoo train that takes the tourists around the parks.

And sort of the opening paragraph kind of tells us about that everyone's interested in the wild animals, the dingoes, the crocodiles, the stingrays and the snakes.

Now, Jean, I think, is a really wonderful character.

She's very recognisable.

She'd be seen as a battler and life's hard, but she herself is a lot of fun and not a whinger.

So she might not be able to get her cert three in captive animals and the job seems to be continually sort of under threat from possible mechanisation and younger, more qualified but dismissive employees in the park.

Her marriage has fallen apart.

Her mum's in a nursing home.

She drinks way too much.

But as Jean says, you sort of have to keep positive.

And she focuses on the good things in her life, which in her case are the animals in the park that she loves and finds fascinating.

Her kind of absent and unreliable son, Lee, and most importantly of all, her favourite dingo called Sue, who she helped raise, and her beloved Kimberley, who's her granddaughter, who she's also helping to raise.

And so she likes to spend her time amusing her granddaughter by sort of jokingly interpreting the animal noises for her.

And she's a really entertaining guide, not just to the tourists in the park, but also to us readers of the book.

Yeah, but if he's gone to the dogs a bit, I reckon.