Amory Clay, the central character, describes a solitary picnic for herself. She is recovering from childbirth trauma. A healthy baby suddenly dies. Amory is depressed, but one day she takes a moment to find solace.
“Today was one of those weird Mediterranean moments you are sometimes blessed with on the west coast of Scotland. A sky of unobstructed azure, no breeze, a constant steadily warming sun, razor-edged shadows. If only we had cicadas . . . Flam and I walked down from the cottage to the little bay, and I had a picnic lunch there— a cheese sandwich, an apple, a square of chocolate, an iced gin and tonic from a Thermos flask.”
See William Boyd. Sweet Caress. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015
Featured Image: Scottish island of Barra, 1977. The presumed location of the narrative, the Isle of Barradale, is fictitious.