Rachel Cusk: In the Fold

As for Hamish — I know you will say that he should stay with you. I can give you that, Michael: I’ve decided to. Rick and Ali think I’ll change my mind but I won’t. I think you need Hamish; he’s a sort of mascot for you, isn’t he? I’ll say one thing for you, Michael, you’re a bloody good father. They thought you might want to find a house of your own, and I said I didn’t think you would. But you know I’ll be your most frequent visitor — I’ll be like your bad fairy godmother, appearing when you least expect it. I’ll come and sit at your kitchen table and take off my silly shoes and tell you all about everything that’s going on in my mad life. I like the thought of you both there in Nimrod Street. All safe and sound, like in a fairy tale.

Rebecca

I lay back on the softness of the bed and looked at the ceiling. Then I went downstairs to find Hamish.

Rachel Cusk was born in 1967 and is the author of six novels: Saving Agnes , which won the Whitbread First Novel Award, The Temporary, The Country Life , which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Lucky Ones , which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award, In the Fold and Arlington Park , which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her non-fiction book A Life’s Work was published to huge acclaim in 2001 and her memoir The Last Supper was published in 2009. Her latest novel is The Bradshaw Variations . In 2003 she was chosen as one of Granta ’s Best of Young Novelists. She lives in Brighton.