Walking on Eggshells

I wrote Walking on Eggshells having enjoyed the experience of writing The Death of a Clerk in Holy Orders. It was a cathartic process as I was still suffering from the consequences of divorcing my husband. Still frightened of him and in writing the story trying to ensure that he could not accuse me of defamation of his character. It had to be a fiction.

Then, I read Ali Smith’s novel “How to Be Both” which is two stories connected by a series of frescoes at the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, Italy. It was a WOW moment and I edited both stories and connected them by friendship. Walking on Eggshells begins in Pimlico and is written as a diary. Here is an extract:

Sunday, 22 February:
A wet, cold day as it has been all week. Tonight, I cooked supper at home for Edward for the first time. He was less than impressed with my basement flat in Charlwood Place, but in the evening, with the curtains drawn and candles lit, one is not aware of the lack of light entering the sitting room. It is cosy and, most importantly, it is close to the city and near St James’ Park, where I love to walk at the weekend and have grown to love the routines of city dwelling, including shopping in Tachbrook Street Market nearby. Never more than thirty minutes from anywhere I want to be. Some mornings, it is refreshingly still beautiful to walk along the embankment by the side of the river to the office. The house has been newly converted into three flats, and mine is the basement. It wasn’t long before damp was evident. It took two attempts to reline the concrete floor and walls with an improved damp-proof membrane to get rid of it. Perhaps after all, the house was built over Tach Brook, a tributary feeding into the Thames. That aside, we had a lovely evening together and ate “Fettuccine Alfredo” followed by “Scaloppine di vitello al Marsala”, both from Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cookbook.

Post Views : 4