Mary Margaret Hamilton was educated in Scotl&. She was born there too. These may not have been the best possible options, but they were the only ones on offer at the time. Although her father did his best, her knowledge of life is perhaps a little incomplete. Margaret knows the best way to look at the moon, how to wake on time & how to breathe fire. Now she must learn how to live. A. L. Kennedy's absorbing, moving & gently political first novel dissects the intricate difficulties of human relationships, from Margaret's passionate attachment to her father & her more problematic involvement with Colin, her lover, to the wider social relations between pupil & teacher, employer & employee, individual & state.