have a distinct memory of first encountering the proper dark. I was about seven or eight years old and on holiday with my parents. We were staying in an isolated farmhouse in the Lake District and I was put to bed in a small back room. The light was switched off, the door closed, Mum and Dad went away, and there was nothing. For the first time, nothing. I held my hand in front of my face and it wasn’t there. Swish,
