Suzanne Leal

We've had some interesting conversations about American dirt and just about, I suppose, the zeitgeist in terms of appropriation and what writers we're reading and where we'd like to go.

Oh, look, to be honest, I thought maybe she started off and thought, yes, this is going to be a book about Clorinda Morrissey and then got sidetracked by Jane and went from there.

So, look, I did feel a little bit bamboozled by it, actually.

Like you said, I was invested in Clorinda.

I thought she was an interesting woman.

She'd come from Ireland.

She'd sold an heirloom to set up tea rooms.

The tea rooms are going gangbusters.

And then she's dropped.

So she does come back and it does become partly her story as well.

But yes, I found that a little bit confusing.

And I think on the first read, because I was surprised by it, I was almost...

almost a bit annoyed that Jane was taking centre stage.

You know, when you're having a cup of tea or afternoon tea with a friend and a friend of theirs comes along and sort of usurps the conversation.

It was a little bit like that at first.

And then I had to get to know Jane and go again.

I think one of the excellent things about Rose Tremaine's writing is that it really is very evocative and you can actually see her characters and you can see the venues and the settings that she sets her writing in.

And Jane, I see predominantly as a really tall woman, particularly in 1865.

She's six foot two and she's a nurse and she's the daughter of a surgeon, Sir William, and

And her job is to work within his practice as a nurse.