The pages 73-75 where Stephen and Keith follow Mrs Hayward to the shops, is a confusing is quite a confusing, yet heart-warming passage for the reader as Frayn has really highlighted the key theme of childhood innocence. In most of the passage, the narrator uses first person present tense to describe the past, which shows to the reader that he is really back in wartime Britain. Getting to see this passage through the eyes of the young Stephen makes it so engaging and moving for the reader, as they start to understand the innocence of their youth. The narrator mentions, “I feel the same kind of shiver pass through me that I felt when we found the code in her diary”, which is quite amusing to the reader, as there is a great deal of dramatic irony
