"But time has already begun to fly, soon Eliza will come and ruin everything. Eliza will be my mother. I am Isobel Fairfax, I am the alpha and omega of narrators (I am omniscient) and I know the beginning and end. The beginning is the word and the end is the silence. And in between are the stories. This is one of mine."
Part 1, p. 20

"My human geography is extraordinary. I am as large as England. My hands are as big as the Lakes, my belly the size of Dartmoor and my breasts rise up like the Peaks. My spine is the Pennines, my mouth the Mallyan Spout. My hair flows into the Humber estuary and causes it to flood and my nose is a white cliff at Dover. I am a big girl, in other words."
Part II, p. 23

"I miss my mother. The ache that is...