Golden Duck

It was January 2009 when Ann first landed in Portugal. Now, one year on, her flat is almost ready and she is looking at furniture. She spends Christmas with a Portugese family, attends the opening of a furniture exhibition and joins a library. In her characteristically restrained and limpid style she thinks back to her experiences of illness in New Zealand, England and Russia, reflects on things she learned in her marriage to Greg and shares memories of Peter Duck, her son Ned as a child and his visit to her last year with his partner Imogen Robertson. Read here