“Anger does not come easy to me. It is something I have to encourage, like a greyhound in second place.”

“I don't know if I've come of age, but I'm certainly older now. I feel shrunken, as if there's a tiny ancient Oliver Tate inside me operating the levers of a life-size Oliver-shaped shell. A shell on which a decrepit picture show replays the same handful of images. Every night I come to the same place and wait till the sky catches up with my mood. The pattern is set. This is, no doubt, the end.”

“Depression comes in bouts. Like boxing. Dad is in the blue corner.”

“Problems are like top trumps. I have a pretty good card: Adulterous Mum. But Jordana's is still better: Tumour Mother.”

“It is strange to hear your mother talk about being human because, honestly, it's too easy to forget.”

“I took a photo of us, mid-embrace. When I am old and alone I will remember that I once held something truly beautiful.”

“I was camped at the same site as her: Broughton Farm. She came over to my tent and showed me her blisters. She asked me whether I knew the reason why a blister can keep on producing fluid ad infinitum. I said that I had always wondered the same thing about mucus. One of the reasons we are together is because we have similar interests.”