“There comes a moment when they both fall silent as her daughter takes a long shuddering breath, and that’s when the memory drops into Caro’s consciousness, perfect as a drop of water off a stalactite. Down it smashes, tiny but insistent, into …”

“Things are dim, inside the museum. There is no flash photography in the galleries but leaning in close reveals that the blues and the dark indigo in the set also show signs of use: they are splashed and grooved, as if Smith was trying to paint while sailing …”