But after a good start, the day begins to show its fangs. One by one the minutes tick by and panic mounts. Exhaustion sets in. By the time the little girls remember belatedly to tell their mother they must have costumes made for a Victorian Day at school tomorrow, it is all too much. We, and they, are left looking aghast at a woman weeping her heart out over a sewing machine and a heap of white linen.
Loss of control has even more frightening consequences in 'The Slovenian Giantess'.
Eleanor has come to the former Yugoslavia to take part in a three-day literary conference. The experience has been fairly dismal but Eleanor has done her best, read her paper on Virginia Woolf, listened to a lecture on the Movement poets and 'The Serbo-Croat reception of the Sirens episode in Ulysses', and is now longing to leave. But she had not counted on Eva, a fellow member of the forum, charmless and forceful, who is eager to show Eleanor something of the local sights before driving her to the airport. What follows is agonising, as Eleanor begins seriously to panic in the face of Eva's determination to postpone the moment of departure. A Christmas Card to One and All', for instance, is laboured and disappointingly obvious.