a shadow’s width away.

extracted a soft brown banana from the recess behind it, and ate it with the quiet relish of one who knows that whatever the problems are, they belong firmly to human beings.

This was the time, when night wasn’t quite over but day hadn’t quite begun, when thoughts stood out bright and clear and without disguise.

it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done. A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a half-brick in the path of the bicycle of history.

‘They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.’

It didn’t occur to her to start worrying. For the first eight years of her life the world had been a particularly boring place and now that it was becoming interesting Esk wasn’t about to act ungrateful.

‘Granny,’ said Esk, in the exasperated and remarkably adult voice children use to berate their wayward elders. ‘I don’t think you quite understand. I don’t want to hit the ground. It’s never done anything to me.’

But some things were too big to be really trapped in words, and even the words were too powerful to be completely tamed by writing.

They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were ignorant of only ordinary things.