My favourite comment left in the margins during the editing of my upcoming novel, Desolation Point, was a slightly exasperated: “I know we’re in Sarah’s POV and she thinks British, but don’t you people ever wear pants?” To which there could only be one answer: “Yes, all the time. Right under our trousers.”

Ah, the joys of writing a novel with a bilingual point of view…

Sarah, as you might have guessed, is the Brit in the story. She has a “rucksack” not a “backpack”, craves Cadbury’s chocolate,...