LO: to explore the importance of the opening

Titles and Structure

The first section header of the book is:

1: In the past

Discuss the following in pairs:

● What does this suggest? Why might the timings be vague?

● Why is this significant structurally for the novel?
● Is this what you would expect from a crime novel? Why?
Why not?
● Find the other section headers in the novel. What are they?
What does this suggest about the timescale of the novel?
 Titles and Structure

● The title of the chapter is ‘Harvest’

● What connotations are there with this word?
● How does it link to the setting / season in the chapter?
● How does it link to the content?
● Why might Atkinson have used it as the title of her chapter?
 Narrative Voice

It is this chapter we come across the first of our

narrative voices.
● Who is narrating?
● What is the tone of the narrative?
● Is this narrative voice ever heard again in the
story? Why might this be?
● How many other narrative voices are there in the
novel? Why might Atkinson have chosen to
present the story from a range of viewpoints?
 Characterisation

In this chapter, Joanna sketches out the characters in

her life, from a childish viewpoint.
Take a character each and note down what we find
out about them. How are they portrayed? Are they
sympathetically presented? Why is this important?
Include quotes.
● Father
● Mother
● Jessica
● Joseph
● Joanna (herself) - how is she presented and why
does she survive?
● The man
 The Opening

● The initial tragedy that opens the books is reminiscent of

familiar high-profile news stories, like the Rachel Nickell,
Abigail Witchalls or the Megan and Josie Russell cases.

● What is it about those cases of random violence that make them

so very haunting?
 Lin, Megan and Josie Russell
● On 9 July 1996, three bodies were found in a copse beside a country lane in Kent. Mother, Dr Lin Russell and
her two daughters, Megan and Josie had all suffered brutal head injuries caused by a blunt instrument. They
had been tied up and their family dog was found dead nearby. The head injuries looked so bad that the
husband/father was initially told that they had all died. Unbelievably, Josie was still alive, albeit barely. She
was transferred immediately to hospital in London, where she was saved.

● The three Russells had been returning on foot from a swimming gala at about 4pm along the country lane,
when a car passed them. Josie even recalled waving to the driver. As they walked further down the lane, the
car was parked across the track, and a man, got out of the car with a hammer. He demanded money from them.
Lin had left her money and purse at home but offered to go back with him to get some, which he refused. Lin
told Josie to run to the nearest house to get help.
● The man grabbed Josie and hit her on the head with a hammer but inflicted only a slight injury. He then
walked the three of them and the dog off the track into a copse, where he tied them up with strips torn from
Josie’s blue swimming towel, a bootlace and a pair of tights. He then hit Lin on the head at least 15 times,
causing severe head trauma and killing her. Josie’s skull was smashed; brain tissue was protruding from a
wound behind her left ear and there were several lacerations to her skull. There was extensive tearing to the
covering of her brain. Megan had been hit at least seven times, suffering massive skull fractures with exposed
brain tissue.
● After the attack, the man got into his car and drove back along the way he had come. About half an hour after
the murders had taken place, a man was spotted a mile away from the murder scene in an agitated state. The
string bag containing bloodied towel strips was dropped in a hedgerow and the man then left the vicinity.
● The crime received a great deal of publicity and in July 1997 police arrested and charged thirty-seven-year-old
Michael Stone with the crimes. Stone pleaded not guilty at his original trial in 1998 but was convicted on the
strength of testimony from a witness who claimed that he had confessed to them while in jail. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment.
 Lin, Megan and Josie Russell
● https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1016864/josie-russell-hammer-attack-murder
 Abigail Witchalls

● On 20 April 2005, Witchalls, while out walking with her 21-

month-old son Joseph in Surrey, was attacked by an
unknown man, and was stabbed in the neck. She was
pregnant at the time. She was found by a neighbour, and
taken to hospital. She was paralysed and unable to speak,
and remained in intensive care for several weeks,
communicating with her family and police by blinking.
● On 28 April 2005, a 23-year-old garden centre worker,
Richard Cazaly, who lived close to the scene of the attack,
took an overdose. He had driven to Scotland two days
earlier and died at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 30
April of liver failure. His suicide note alluded to the attack
and Police say he would have been charged with attempted
murder.
● She subsequently gave birth to her second son five weeks
early via a natural birth. She has regained some speech and
has had a third child.
 Rachel Nickell

Rachel Nickell’s son: ‘That’s what I remember mo

st – the moment I knew she was gone’

How is Alex (the child victim)

presented in the article?

What insight can we gain from

this real life story about:
- the human spirit
- The restorative power of
love
- Anything else?
 Random acts of violence

The initial tragedy that opens the books is reminiscent of familiar

high-profile news stories, like the Rachel Nickell, Abigail
Witchalls or Megan and Josie Russell cases. What is it about
those cases of random violence that make them so very haunting?
Does it have something to do with the fact that when mothers are
attacked they can’t run, because they feel the need to stay and
protect their children?
 Themes

● Look at the Emily Dickinson poem just before the section header
What do you think it suggests?
● How does this link to the end of chapter 1?