Penney Drops

Now that I've finished with American Shaolin, I'm reading Steff Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves (as recommended by Dave) which won last year's Costa Book of the Year Award. I vaguely remember press coverage marveling at the time that:

On leaving university, Stef became agoraphobic and could barely travel. She has never been to Canada and researched The Tenderness of Wolves at The British Library. Now recovered, Stef lives in East London.

I imagine that, never mind Canada, she has never been to the 19th century either suffering from as she did from agoraphobia rather than Chrono-Displacement Disorder.