Author:Katie Flynn
A family divided by war but united by love.
Marianne seems to have everything. She is married to a handsome naval officer, Neil Sheridan, commander of a corvette. They have a daughter, Libby, and a beautiful home near Prince's Park in Liverpool.
When war comes, Marianne takes war work and moves into Crocus Street with her mother, Mrs Wainwright, and younger sister. Neil disapproves because the Wainwrights live so near the docks, which are bound to be a bombing target, but Marianne is firm.
Meanwhile, Libby is evacuated to the country to stay with Miss Williams, who lives in an ancient house, Tregarth, at the head of a valley in North Wales and Libby, the wheelchair-bound Matthew and Miss Williams assume they can settle down to see out the war in comparative safety.
But Libby is forced to return to the city when her mother suffers an accident and her gran finds herself unable to cope ...
One of the best Liverpool writers
—— Liverpool EchoCombining the visceral pleasures of a thriller with the more intellectual excitements of a novel of ideas... Beautifully constructed...never less than engrossing
—— Sunday TelegraphVivid, admirably imagined, ultimately very moving...This is a novel of the very highest ambition...immediate, sensuous, beautiful
—— Alan Massie , ScotsmanCombines dazzling erudition with assured narrative skills to offer glimpses of some of history's darkest corners, and stark and timely challenges to the very notions of civilisation and progress
—— Independent on SundayA dazzling hall of mirrors... Ferociously ambitious... Illumined by a fizzing passion for the recondite
—— Daily Telegraph