The Lie of the Land is another "state of the nation" novel,
this time inspired by the recession that began in 2009 and which
continues to the present.
One day, just before the recession became public knowledge, my
husband came back from a meeting in the Treasury, very pale. He had been
told what Liam Byrne, the then Labour Cabinet Minister, said in the now
notorious note declaring that "there is no money left." This is why my
novel begins with the words: "There is no money left, and the Bredins
cannot afford to divorce." It is about the interplay between what has
been happening on the national stage, and an entirely private quarrel
between two very different people, who in a sense represent the city and
the country.
