FROM MY RESEARCH journal, August 2011: Our sea is made up of certain blues. Sometimes, just before the weather changes, our sea is so pale it fades into the sky. At these times, the sea is almost silent. Sometimes our sea is bluer than a cornflower. These blues are inside us, enshrined beyond anything conscious, alongside the smell of hot sand and the sound of waves arriving from thousands of miles away.

By the time news from the rest of the world arrives here its voice is faint and barely audible above the noise of these waves.