Summary

Part one is called “First Low Water”. It begins with the protagonist, twenty year old Tom Flett, waking up at 5am to begin his job as a shanker, trawling for shrimp on the beach, in the fictional British town of Longferry in the 1950s. Tom gets washed and wakes up his mother, Lillian, then goes outside to feed the horse. Whilst doing so, he reflects that his real talents do not lie with this sort of work, but with music. Tom feeds and waters the horse then goes back into the house where Lillian is cooking his breakfast. The narration reveals that she is less than sixteen years older than Tom. She points out that Tom is running about half an hour late and is at risk of missing some time at low tide. Tom initially denies being late before checking the wall clock...