Claire didn’t think much of the property. ‘It was a complete wreck. A rubbish heap on a big hill in an awful little town. No one with any sense would touch it.’ Claire’s dismissal of the farm lands close to home. I grew up in Queensbury, a stone’s throw from the farm. I walked past it almost daily as a child; occasional summer afternoons spent ‘mucking in’ with the Alderton family as a teenager were a part of my upbringing.
-- Narration (A Fool's Gold)

Importance: This passage highlights Hannah’s connection to place and her background, grounding her in a specific, semi-working-class environment. Claire’s dismissal of the farm underscores the class divide between those who see such rural property as worthless and those for whom it holds personal and formative significance. The farm symbolizes both Hannah’s roots and the tension between lived experience and social perception, foreshadowing how her own...