Chris Brookmyre

And she suddenly realises that he saw her as a little old lady and she's bereft for a moment.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, because she's vain.

Yeah, really vain.

It's testament again to how Spark draws this, though, that you have these very privileged, wealthy individuals and she has been in their employ, but you nonetheless start to feel far more sympathy for them and you see her as a highly dangerous person.

She has a hinterland as well, doesn't she?

She has had her love affairs and she's had her moments of, there's a moment she remembers walking through the woods with her lover and she suddenly thinks we're going on the wrong path.

Why are we on this path?

And she said, is he going to murder me?

I think he's probably going to strangle me and throw me in the bushes.

And then she says, why are we on this path?

And he says, it's a shortcut.

And she realized, oh, yes, it is a shortcut.

And she thinks, oh, the things that flip through women's minds.

But we know that this is actually a sensible thing to flip through her mind.

She's almost a muse to certain people and she's inspirational and she's wise not wise in her old age she's shown to have been far wiser than many of her peers at younger age but you feel most for her in her almost her being restrained and reduced by hospital.

She made me out of all the characters she made me most feel the sense of tragedy of what was lost and I think it's the Oscar Wilde quote about the tragedy of

of old age is not that we are old but that we are young.

And I feel like that's kind of what she epitomises.

And yet it is funny and life-affirming and sharp and I love it.