Mark Aldridge

I just wish they'd release a book.

I'd love to give them a pre-order.

But yes, we see this in lots of her 60s books as well.

But I think the politics that we see in this book are much smaller in lots of ways.

And you can really tell that she's someone who's used to town living, as in not city, not tiny village.

but she understands that there's a hierarchy which is often old-fashioned and might be generational rather than it being earned, which is still the case now in lots of smaller communities.

Big families and there are people who've always been there and always been, you know, on the council or whatever.

And John Gabriel, our prominent politician in it, is deceptive and inscrutable.

Yeah.

I guess at points, certainly a very variable one.

Hugh's never very enamored, I think.

Because he's baffled by him.

yeah they see things so differently and gabriel john gabriel sees these things like the whole world has to be manipulated to his game that's what it's about and it's like that is the ultimate outcome and dare i say to make a tory into that character it's not very big c conservative it shows her willingness to be nuanced and fair and yeah completely well i mean i'd see it's funny i i

Class is another important aspect of this story, isn't it?

Because like I say, small town politics, it's going to be a really important thing.

And there's a really unusual and very memorable moment in the book, isn't there?

Where a child falls into the harbour and John Gabriel jumps straight in, even though he can't swim.

And it's this way that you can read it in multiple ways.

The first is to say, what a hero, even though he can't swim, he goes and tries to rescue this child.

Or there is a perhaps more practical response, which is...