Glasshopper

Travel Guide

Brighton

“I love November. I love the frosty grass that pokes up between the paving slabs, and the smoke that puffs out of your nostrils like dragon’s breath. I love the ready-made ice rink that freezes underneath the broken guttering in the school playground. And I love the salt ‘n’ vinegar heat inside a noisy pub, when everyone outside is walking about under hats and gloves with dripping red noses.”

The author remembers school trips and eating chips along the Palace Pier. She says the starlings were part of that memory for her and she knew they would be part of the book for both of the characters.

Portsmouth

The author says:

I find harbour towns fascinating. All those boats coming and going gives a lace the sense of possibility; the promise of other places, other lives. I knew that Jake’s life had to have an urban quality about it, and somehow Portsmouth seemed right. From there, Jake and his family would travel to the Isle of Wight and France for some of the most pivotal moments of the novel in which the contract between these places could reveal more of the characters’ anxieties and desires.

Isle of Wight

Jake’s mum gets back in touch with her estranged older sister, Rachel. The family house here is a bustle of activity. An instant extended family.

The author says she visited the Isle of Wight as a child and returned into order to research this book. She walked along the Tennyson trail and stood at the moment breathing in the clean air. This sense of freedom became an important feature of Jake’s visit to his aunts.

There is a French location but it appears towards the end of the novel and is a spoiler.