I didn’t want to get out of bed because I was so strangely fearful, and I didn’t even know what it was that I was afraid of

Publication week is always a strange time, says Louise O’Neill.

As I write this, there are still lumps of dirty snow lining the footpath and I can barely suppress a shudder every time I catch sight of one out of the corner of my eye, as if I’m suffering from snow-induced PTSD.

When the initial forecasts were released, promising plagues and locusts and the return of the Ice Age, I was sceptical.