'The worst thing about time is not having too little time, but too much. Time to swish around in, time to drown in. You are always remembering, or revising, or preparing, or rehearsing. Thinking, I ought to have told her then, right there in the cafe, that I loved her. What could have prevented me?'Soaked in anxiety and regret, Duckness is a collection of bizarre stories which combine to form a complex meditation on time, memory and the construction of national and personal identity.Duckness is the condition of the captive who can be trusted with the key, the hostage who has fallen in love with his kidnapper, the teenager who has become overly concerned with her superannuation.Ducknes is a remarkably original take on life from the author of Letters to Francesca and The Prince.