Revolution begins in the kitchen. - Helen Garner

Ideas came swarming through her, and like many people who labour in the obsession of solitude, she lacked the detachment to challenge them.

On Melbourne summer mornings the green trams go rolling in stately progress down tunnels thick with leaves: the bright air carries along the avenue their patient chime, the chattering of their wheels

'That,' I said, 'would be a blessing. There are so many things I'd like to forget I hardly know what would be left standing, if I ever got started.'