What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.

A brand new drama based on the best-selling novel. They think they're better than us. Who do you think you are? I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong. She's punishing me. You destroyed my family. I will not rest until I've destroyed yours. A Woman of Substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.

I'm not quite sure how old I was when Dad took me out onto the water to conduct the ritual.

It was during those blurry early teenage years, where you're old enough to remember most details with clarity,

but other memories have faded away with time and age. I had other things on my mind,

mainly school, friends, and girls, and not in that order. Still, I can remember it was during

the ocean drought years. I didn't realize for a long time that the term ocean drought was not a universally recognized

one.

In our small seaside town, fishing was the lifeblood of our economy.

Whatever you had, be it your home or your food, was directly or indirectly thanks to the work of our fishermen.

Most of the time, the ocean was generous with its bounty, providing more than enough for everyone

to not only sustain themselves, but also to sell our fresh-caught fish to restaurants and high-end

markets in the big cities and sprawling suburbs

of America's interior. Anyway, fishing was our farming and fish were our rain, so to speak.

At some point over the years, when the fish weren't biting and the ocean seemed barren,

my small town started calling that an ocean drought. I remember how my mother's

face grew tighter with each passing year of weak harvests. Though she had a part-time job and worked

hard to support my dad emotionally, she knew how precarious our situation was. She was the one who

shopped for food and other essentials,

took care of repair bills, organized Christmas, and so on. She simply had the best sense of

our financial position, even if dad was the main breadwinner. The ordeal aged her prematurely,

and her health began to decline rapidly as I reached adulthood.

...