Cassie McCullagh

And it takes a while to work out what's going on and untangle the secrets of wartime espionage and the role of their mother Rose in the war and their lives.

Kate...

Now, I'm going to stop you there because I just want to let listeners know there will be no spoilers.

We will not spoil any of this novel, so don't feel like you're reaching for the off button because we'll be very careful here.

It is a novel that reveals itself quite slowly.

Now, I'm glad that you've used the word masterpiece, Devon Romay, because I don't agree.

Why not?

Well, for a range of reasons.

And I first would like to say what I do love about this book.

Obviously, as the title suggests, this whole book is about light or perhaps the lack of it.

And the earliest clues are in the very first pages when Nathaniel's visiting his father's office late in the evening.

And there's a large map, one of those topographical one with raised features on it.

And when the father switches on the light, those features like mountains cast shadows.

And Ondaatje writes, the sprinklings of light revealed great stretches of unlit earth.

And I think immediately we can read this as a metaphor for memory and particularly childhood memory, which can be so patchy and has often a kind of random quality, why some things are remembered clearly and others not so much.

That's not always clear to us when we're older.

Now, Warlight itself is a reference to the practice in the war in Britain of blackouts and concealing light at night time as much as possible to prevent German attack and to stop bombers seeing their targets.

And this is where much of the book is set, at least in the early part, in this half light where nothing's really clear.

Some amazing images.

There's greyhounds in this book and that is...