Image matters

In Poison by Lucy Caldwell we find our main character observing other people’s lives, inserting herself into parts of the narrative and filling some of the gaps in for herself. It’s at times as though she is observing characters in a play, and intermittently trying to writing their parts for them whilst creating a cameo role for herself. We’re going to look at how this effect is created throughout the story, and as always, you’ll get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: https://writ.rs/poison

In the opening scene, our main character is observing two people in a bar and realises that one of them is a face she recognises from the past. Mr Knox was a significant presence in her teenage years; he was her teacher and also someone she had a major crush on.

Let’s look at how the props and accessories surrounding Mr Knox help us to build up a