In adapting Nyland's book, The Shirley, did you see it as a continuation of some of Ruth Park's stories, characters or voice? And what would you say are some distinctions or similarities between their styles or voices as writers?

I love that question.

Yeah, I knew I wanted to complete a sort of trifecta of work as my tribute to Ruth and Darcy's astounding canon of writing.

I was really scared that we were going to lose these stories and I started with Ruth.

I started with her simply because I knew her work better.

But as I've read all of their work, you can really hear Ruth and Darcy's voices in each other's work, despite the fact that they are really different independent writers.

But as I mentioned, they were constantly encouraging each other.

So do you see that as a contradiction, those two aspects of his character? And were there other complexities in him that you were drawn to or wanted to bring out?

It's more the market impacts that we're seeing.

Absolutely.

So on the energy side, for gas and for electricity, there is no sensible expectation there'll be any scarcity.

So if you want to switch on the light, if you want to put your gas powered fire on in the winter, that is going to be possible.

The question is always, well, what will that cost? And whilst people do change their behaviours in response to extreme price signals, it's actually not that much.

People aren't very wasteful with their energy.

Appliances are incredibly efficient nowadays.

If it was up to you, would you remove the price cap? And if so, what would you replace it with?