Clutching her daughter and hollowed out by impending loss, Lana blamed herself. Her first mistake, 18 years earlier, had been putting a world globe in Ada's room, its warm light drawing the eye, irradiating Earth in an inviting glow.

After that, well, where to begin – with her romanticised retellings of youthful adventures overseas? With the listing yellow towers of National Geographic magazines in the study? With bookshelves brimming with Newbys, Chatwins, Brysons? With a radio hard-wired to the BBC World Service?

God, she'd all but dragged Ada here, to this ugly departures lounge. What a fool she'd been.

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