Claire Nicholls

Kay Tempest, welcome to the book show.

And I know you had a quote from Ted Hughes on your wall when you wrote this book.

The quote is, write what you can't bear to admit.

Why that quote?

How hard is it to go that deep and to write what you can't bear to admit?

So this novel is about Rothko.

Who is Rothko?

And Rothko's come back to this seaside town where they grew up.

When we meet them, they are very solitary, apart from a very loyal dog, Donovan, who's always trotting along by Rothko's side.

But how lonely is Rothko?

How cut off?

I did want to talk about this one scene in this book, Cade Tempest.

We go back to see Rothko as a teenager.

They're about 16.

They're with this wonderful girl, Dion, and Dion takes Rothko to the shops to buy a pair of boxer shorts so that they don't have to wear knickers anymore.

Are you able to talk a little bit about what that means for Rothko?

there's kind of the spectre of Rothko's mother hanging over this town.

We get the sense from early on that Rothko thinks about their mum a lot but hasn't seen them for a long time.

What can you tell us about Rothko and their mum?

Yeah, I adored Meg.