The narrative was written by Jenny Dugan.

“I’m always the first in and last out. Dump my stuff wherever it lands and run fast down over the hot sand, the small crunching shells.

“When they call from the shore I dive down back under. I can hold my breath forever. Mum reckons that I am growing gills, calls me the little mermaid in reverse.

“She laughs that if I ever grew a fish’s tail that I wouldn’t be crying for my land legs or dreaming after princes who can’t swim.

“I bump into stuff on land and scab my knees but in the sea I muck around for hours and all I feel is the way the water holds me and its saltiness drying tight across my nose when I float nowhere on my back.

“It’s my own world out here and I can be whoever I want from all the books my Nan has read to me: a selkie, a great white whale, a sea turtle – between one dive and the next it changes.

“Now they’re at the edge, waving and shouting my name. It’s hard to keep up the act of pretending not to hear them. And I see my towel. Dad’s shaking out all the sand.

“The way he taught me so that it doesn’t get all over anyone else. And I think it would be nice just for a little while to get wrapped up in that towel in his arms, feel his scratchy chin through my salty hair that dries like big bunches of seaweed.

“He’ll be saying something about how it’s not long before we have to do something about fish and chips…and he’ll be saying where’s my fish-girl then, where’s my catch of the day…”