Tanya Dalziel

And I think you were talking before about the ways in which the beginning is kind of tongue-in-cheek.

I think the book takes on the wit of...

of Austen.

I think it's really interested in being poised as well as quite funny in the way that Austen's work is.

But I guess unlike Austen's writing, which is kind of famed for the way in which its point of view works, which is that the thoughts of the characters kind of merge with the narrative voice, this book is very much centred on the first person.

So it's very much from Elizabeth's point of view and we don't really get to know much beyond that because the text is really interested in

her inner life.

So it's a very linear story that kind of moves from childhood, but it's also told retrospectively.

So the idea is that it's the older Elizabeth reflecting back on her life and telling the story.

So certainly there's instances in the novel which I think deliberately recall Austen and Hardy and others that you mentioned.

And of course, MacArthur is drawn as an entirely unsympathetic figure.

I think so.

I mean, he's presented from the... He has his perhaps seductions.

There's the hint at the beginning that Elizabeth falls for him for some reason.

But as the narrative unfolds, the older, wiser Elizabeth doesn't let us forget that this man is unloving, at times sexually violent, and in pursuit of the honour that he feels is owed him.

He's driven by this idea of keeping his honour or indeed producing it because...

Of course, in large part, he's there because he has accrued a big debt so that he can become a kind of gentlemanly figure.

Yeah, he's always scheming and is certainly not shy of reaching for his pistols at every opportunity.

So he's certainly, there's no mystery as to where the narrative sympathies lie and it's certainly not with him.

I think so.