“He was used to being the smallest and the newest, and had an unshakeable faith in someone else being in control. At home it was Maman, then Papa, then Tel and Laurette. Outside of home it could be confusing, but he’d found it safe to assume the bigger someone was, the more they ran things.”

Gregoire Alphonse Duday was born in 1878, after his mother had thought she’d left childbearing behind. This was bad enough, but he did not even attempt to utter a word until he was two. Gwennoelle was convinced by then she’d given birth to an idiot. She has never quite forgiven him for this.