‘Is that breadfruit?’ Susan asked. ‘Do you eat it just as it is?’

‘You have to cook it. It isn’t a very difficult job, though. You merely have to wrap it in leaves and put it in a hole with hot stones. Or you can cut it in slices and fry it.’

Marriott said: ‘You seem to have done your homework on tropic islands, Sweeney.’

‘The Coral Island,’ he said, ‘was my first bedside book and is still, I think, my favourite. And the disappointment of picking up The Gorilla Hunters and finding them all grown up and dull – with beards, even – soured my youth. It taught me that the good and bright and fresh things must always descend to the monotone and monochrome.’

‘Once you’ve learned the lesson,’ Susan said, ‘does it stay learnt?’

‘Not for most people,’ Sweeney said, ‘fortunately.’