The Work

Lally’s early childhood memories of happiness were littered with details she’d spend the rest of her life interrogating for signs of her mother’s misery.

The birth of a girl was apparently only a minor setback for Antony once Estelle promised him they would ‘try again’.

They’d had the gall to tell her it would be ‘great exposure’ for Gallery Lally. On top of their insulting presumptuousness

Men always thought women cost them money, but really women were saving them money all the time.

is this money dirty, is all money, is it real freedom if it is bought …

It felt to Lally as if she were being presented to the painting rather than the other way around.

Why not let this be her delicious private secret until then? A secret little spark in her heart.

Art should do more than ‘remind’.

took another tiny bump then squeezed his eyes shut, rolling his hands in a tumbling motion as if he could physically will the momentum of his own memories to return.

Em had a slight lankiness to her. She wasn’t just slim, she was skinny, scrawny maybe, in a way Pat noticed other women noticing.