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''Most people at one time or another of their lives get a feeling that they must kill themselves; as a rule they get over it in a day or two'' (""''How Girls Can Build Up The Empire: the handbook for Girl Guides"" '' 1912)
Excerpts from the handbook precede each section of ''Landfall'' and it is hard to know what to make of them – other than to take on board that women are not, by any stretch, the weaker sex, just the more emotional one ''They can even…shoot tigers, if they can keep cool''.