Drusilla Modjeska has written a book of essays on women writers, Exiles at Home, and the award-winning semi-autobiography Poppy. And now, with The Orchard, the essay meets the autobiographical and both come out very differently indeed. Drusilla Modjeska begins by patiently explaining why the question, is this fiction or non-fiction?, is relevant to her writing.

It has a relevance in one sense because it is a worry, since we live in a world which seems to have taxological problems. People like to be able to put things in one category or another. I seem at the moment to be writing in a way that sits on the line.