Kate Evans

So the book does change as well.

Your reading position in it changes.

And I think she does actually address all of those things, but tangentially.

And she keeps on bringing these different forces and aspects together in her writing, I think.

So the house that Emma lives in, this very designer house, is very unsympathetic to a changing climate.

But also they live in the posh part of town and they have swimming pools and nobody would follow the rules of the council of draining the pools because they thought they were too important for that and they deserved a swimming pool.

The water restrictions weren't for people like them.

And she ties all that together really cleverly, I think.

And that swan is looking back.

It's a repetition of language that is also something that often happens when people are acquiring language.

And this little boy, Arthur, when he finally does speak, he will repeat a phrase that he said to him.

So there's that literal sense of it.

but it was also the title of an art exhibition that Clem creates later on.

But for me, Michael, this was the only overworked bit of the book.

I thought that title was trying too hard, to be honest.

I mean, I think this is such a sophisticated, interesting book and it's a sort of very mannered title.

Oh, I think the idea is really interesting, but I just thought it was a bit... I wasn't convinced by it as a title for a book.

And don't be scared of it.

Don't be scared by the idea that this is a child with this almost, you know, biblical image of a child in the rushes and the tragedy of that.

Don't make that stop you reading it because I think it's really worth reading.