“Sometimes John had recorded new compositions, or lines from his new poems. Sometimes he'd just record a busy night in The Green Man. Sometimes sheep, seals, skylarks, the wind turbine. If Liam were home there would be some Liam. The summer fair. The Fastnet Race. I would unfold my map of Clear Island. Those tapes prised the lid off homesickness and rattled out the contents, but always at the bottom was solace.”

British comedian, actor and writer

David James Stuart Mitchell is a British comedian, actor, and writer. He came to prominence with Robert Webb as part of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, and is known for playing Mark Corrigan in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show. He won the British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Performance in 2009. Mitchell and Webb have written and appeared in several sketch shows, including Bruiser, The Mitchell and Webb Situation, That Mitchell and Webb Sound, That Mitchell and Webb Look, and Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping. They also appeared in Apple’s British “Get a Mac” campaign, made their first film, Magicians, in 2007, and later starred in Ambassadors in 2013 and the Channel 4 comedy-drama Back from 2017 to 2021.