“If I’d been free to pick any name in the world, I would have one for something diaphanous and fanciful, like Coralie or Delphine, the kind of name a grand dame gives a petit chien. Because no one – no one – daydreams about pretty names more than girls called Jane. And with good reason, you know? I mean, even our most illustrious Janes are world-class stick-in-the-mud. Austen, Eyre, Doe? Spintser, sucker, corpse. It’s a wonder I managed as well as I did.”
