And I shook an African man’s hand. It was warm and slightly sweaty like anyone else’s.”
-- Queenie Bligh (Prologue )

Importance: In the novel’s prologue, a young Queenie visits the British Empire Exhibition, where she sees an exhibit about Africa. There, she shakes hands with a Black man; she is surprised, given the racist milieu in which she grows up, that the man’s hand is “like anyone else’s.” Levy uses this moment to gesture towards Queenie’s future acceptance (however imperfect) of the Black immigrants that come to England. Levy suggests that an opposition to bigotry must rely, in some way, upon an authentic understanding of all people as equal, regardless of race.

In the breath it took to exhale that one little word, England became my destiny. A dining-table in a dining room set with four chairs. A starched tablecloth embroidered with bows. Armchairs in the sitting room placed...
-- Hortense Roberts (chapter 7)