Max continued to ask questions that drew her out more, and as she talked he could see she was gradually starting to relax. The enthusiasm he’d seen so briefly over lunch the other day was coming through again, and she was becoming animated as she spoke. He moved the subject on from the practicalities of the venture to some of its underlying issues.

‘How do you find the children respond to the camping?’ he asked.

‘Usually very well,’ she replied. ‘They all have to do chores, share the work, and most discover grit and strength in themselves—a determination to achieve goals that will, we hope, enable them to transfer those...