Exciting Times: 'Droll, shrewd and unafraid – a winning debut' Hilary Mantel

In Russia, Edith had said, you could get Putin’s face on anything. Vodka, bread, you name it. In Hong Kong, the same was true of Hello Kitty.

In Hong Kong English, ‘helping someone do something’ could mean you did it and they did not assist.

I knew Edith was typing and seeing words form on her side, but they weren’t there on mine, which made them subjunctive: wish or feeling, less than fact. Ellipsis meant absence, nothing in the bell jar, no proof – not a specimen. The dots waved like trills on Chopin’s staves, turn them how you will.