I'm glad you like this

passage because this image of Gwen and Augustus on the beach sketching was something I held in my mind all the while I was writing the book.

However complicated and difficult and dreadful they might have become at times as adults, that was for me the central, the kind of touchstone of the story really.

So this is, I'm setting the scene of their hometown in Tembi when they're both very small.

For a few weeks in summer, when the waters of Carmarthen Bay glittered blue under a sharp sea breeze, the Welsh town of Tenby was transformed into a busy seaside resort.

Music from the local brass band competed with a visiting troupe of black-faced minstrels.

Elegant couples strolled along the curving esplanade.

How did you achieve this dynamic connection?