 A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantell, narrated by Sandra Duncan. This work is copyrighted 1994 by Hilary Mantell. This recording is copyrighted 2011 by W. F. Howes Ltd. Ralph and Anna Eldred live in the big Red House in Norfolk, raising their four children and devoting their lives to charity. Yet the constant flood of good souls and sad cases welcomed into their home hides the growing crises in their own family. From the violent townships of South Africa to the windswept countryside of Norfolk this is an epic yet subtle family saga about what happens when trust is broken. The author begins with the following quotation from Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man 1871. We are not here concerned with hopes and fears, only with the truth, as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability. And from the book of Job chapter 4 verse 7. Consider what innocent ever perished, or where have the righteous been destroyed? And now a change of climate. 1970. Sad cases, good souls. One day when Kit was ten years old a visitor cut her wrists in the kitchen. She was just beginning on this cold, difficult form of death when Kit came in to get a glass of milk. The woman, Joan, was sixty years old and wore a polyester dress from a charity shop. A house-wifely type she had chosen to drip her blood into the kitchen sink. When Kit touched her on the elbow she threw down the knife onto the draining board and attempted with her good hand to cover Kit's eyes. By this stage in her life Kit was not much surprised by anything. As she ducked under the woman's arm she thought, that's our bread knife if you don't mind. But she said, you shouldn't be doing that, Joan. Why don't you come away from the sink? Why don't you sit down on this chair and I'll get the first aid Kit? The woman allowed herself to be led to a chair at the kitchen table. Kit pulled a clean tea-tile out of a drawer and wrapped it around Joan's wrist. The towel was a checked one, red and white. Joan's reluctant blood seeped black against the cloth. The cuts were light, early, indecisive, the practice cuts. Just wiggle your fingers, Kit said. Make sure you haven't done any damage.