Dugald Bruce Lockhart

I wanted to use it, wasn't quite sure how, but of course it's reported, so we know the narrator survives because we're looking back.

But then another book, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, came into play.

Now, The Secret History set in New England about these undergraduates who...

I can say this much because she says it in the first page of the prologue.

They end up killing one of their friends.

They have to try and cover it up.

And it's all Greek.

They belong to the classics class there.

And it's a wonderful story.

But on page one, she says...

You know, something, something, we killed Bunny and this is what happened.

And I thought, wow.

So you start a story basically saying effectively in film terms that the Titanic sinks.

And I thought, but of course, that's brilliant.

We all know the Titanic sinks, but it doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the film in such a way that, will it sink?

Will it sink?

And even when it's about to sink, you think, no, it's not going to sink.

And that, again, narrative tension, it's a wonderful device.

So I decided in the end, in my prologue, to let the reader know that he's gone to prison and that we know that someone has been killed.

We don't know who, why, or what.