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Good evening and welcome to the sleepy bookshelf, where we put down our worries from the day and pick up a good book.

I'm Elizabeth, your host. Thank you for choosing to be here this evening.

Tonight we are continuing with the child woman's daughter.

But before that, let's take a moment to relax and prepare for sleep.

Close your eyes and get comfortable, beginning to breathe slowly and evenly.

As you breathe, feel yourself sink deeper into relaxation whatever position you're in

in I'm going to count backwards from ten to 1.

Imagine you are at the top of a wide staircase.

It has 10 steps, and at the bottom is complete relaxation. Try to visualize those steps.

And as I begin to count down, walk down the staircase, step by step, becoming even more relaxed with each descent.

Ten, nine, 7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, and 1, three, two and one.

Mary make believe lived on the fifth floor of a house in Dublin.

The window was thick with soot from the surrounding chimney pots.

There were holes in the skirting boards from cockroaches and rats,

and water had to be fetched from the ground floor all the way up.

She lived with her mother, whom she loved dearly, and who cleaned people's houses for a living.

She would often come home and pretend they were rich, planning all the things they would buy.

But then she would become very sad.

She loved her daughter fiercely, almost painfully, but Mary didn't mind.

While her mother worked, Mary would walk around the parks and streets of Dublin, admiring all the shop windows and telling her mother of all the goings-on in the city when they were reunited in the evenings. Together they would

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