Sarah Waters

The Night Watch

Virago, 2006.

They went into the park at Clarence Gate, then followed the path beside the boating lake. They approached the bandstand and the music grew louder and less ragged. They walked further, and the tune revealed itself at last. "Oh!" said Helen, and they laughed; for it was only "Yes! We Have No Bananas". They left the path and found a spot they liked the look of, half in sunlight, half in shade. The ground was hard, the grass very yellow. Helen put down the bag and unpacked the cloth; they spread it out and kicked off their shoes, then laid out the food

A Saturday in 1947: the modest picnic - 'bread, lettuce, apples, a nub of cheese' - reflects the austerity of post-war Britain, when food was still rationed and bananas a rarity.

Somewhere a baby was crying from a pram; she heard it stumbling over its breath. A dog was barking, as its owner teased it with a stick. From the boating lake there came the creak and splash of oars, the larking about of boys and girls; and from the streets at the edges of the park, of course, came the steady snarl of motors. Concentrating, she seemed to hear the scene in all its individual parts: as if each might have been recorded separately, then put with the others to make a slightly artificial whole: "A September Afternoon, Regent's Park"