Cassie McCullough

But Sam's much more guarded about his background, isn't he?

And what it is that he wants to reveal.

Yeah.

Yeah, look, I think we should invoke the 100-page rule.

This book is almost 400 pages, so I think what happens in the first 100 pages might be fair game as far as revealing plot is concerned.

They're two very different characters.

There's no reason for them to really have any connection at all, especially as Vic is this old retired motor mechanic.

He's living in a rundown old house, has no pets.

His dog's just died, which we realise was probably the last thing he was hanging on to in life.

And now that that responsibility's gone, he felt that there was nothing stopping him from taking the step forward.

that he was about to take when he met Sam on the bridge that night.

Sam, and we didn't mention this, when Sam is on the railing, he's been beaten up, his hair's all been cut and hacked at, he's been bashed, his hair's been hacked off, but he's also wearing makeup.

So there's a lot going on in Sam's life and we soon learn part of what's going on for him.

and as you say we don't want to give too much of it away but you've already mentioned some of the the rather nice things that connect this unlikely pairing so vic has his motorbikes and his skill and the stuff that he really knows

Meanwhile one of the things that Sam knows is how to cook and that's because in a pretty difficult life he's discovered the video clips on YouTube of Julia Child and he watches her and her slightly strange voice and her way of talking about food and it's something that he knows how to do.

So while they start to enter into each other's lives, they're sort of presenting their own skills.

And there's something really interesting about ways of being boys and men, having the motorbikes and the cooking as something that starts to connect them.

Yes, Sam's been watching these videos of Julia Child, who's an American cooking teacher, but actually a whole lot more.

She had a very interesting life.

But she made these television programs called, you know, one of them was called The French Chef.