The Cuckoo's Parting Cry

Nov 5, 2025 1:12 AM

Author:Anthea Halliwell

For Fidgie, living in pre-war Wales, the long school holiday stretched blissfully ahead. With her new friend Chaz as companion for idyllic summer days by the sea, she was able frequently to escape her edgy mother and her malicious older sister, Cly. Her father, mercifully, was away from home ...

Through Fidgie's clear eyes the events of a brief hot spell in August unfold: her family and neighbours become involved in adultery, deception, and other, darker, misdemeanours. The eight-year-old child is an engaging and lively narrator; swept along by her extraordinarily compelling tale, the reader will realise that underlying Fidgie's innocent accounts of family meals, fishing trips round the bay, tree-climbing and playing at May Queens, a very adult sub-text is developing. Its conclusion is both tragic and inevitable.

Anthea Halliwell's novel marks the emergence of a delightfully individual voice and a most original storytelling talent.

Reviews

The era and the seaside locale are beautifully rendered and observed, not least the social and sexual undercurrents of the time

—— Elizabeth Buchan , Sunday Times

A humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance

—— Guardian

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

—— Independent

Pitch perfect

—— Marie Claire

A moving story of longing and frustration

—— Observer

Stunning...fraught and honest

—— New York Times Book Review

'I loved it. Devoured it! A wonderful read. Tense, romantic, smart; a beautiful portrait of a seaside town poised at an exact moment in history, with people trapped by laws and mores'

—— Russell T. Davies (on Instagram)

A powerful story of love, shame and jealousy

—— Mohsin Zaidi

Roberts gives us two strong, absorbing voices, whose competing claims on our sympathies...make My Policeman a satisfyingly taut and involving read

—— Times Literary Supplement

A powerful story of forbidden love, regret, and living as your true self

—— Vanity Fair

A gripping read

—— Viv Groskop , Red

A sensitive, sweeping novel

—— Vogue

Captures the obsessive and destructive madness of sexual jealousy

—— Psychologies

Roberts deploys her research carefully, honing a novel with a strong period feel and a sprightly structure

—— Independent

An amazing read

—— Latest 7

Roberts’ sharp, evocative prose renders this simple story complex, enthralling and compelling

—— Anne Hill , Sussex Life

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent Radar

A heartbreaking examination of lives and love

—— Diva Magazine

A powerful story of sexual jealousy and longing, My Policeman is also a heartbreaking examination of lives and love that has gone to waste in an era in which homosexuality was a prosecutable offence

—— DIVA Magazine

A delicious novel by an experienced author who captures the scientific atmosphere of the early 19th century with a devastating study of infidelity

—— Colin Gardiner , Oxford Times

The real life players of the Napoleonic era spring to life

—— i

Compelling

—— Big Issue

Highly assured and almost educational with its broad sweep of history

—— Jane Housham , Guardian

Tillyard’s achievement is in this original portray log the Regency era and its relevance to our own time

—— Philippa Williams , The Lady

a very human tale about passion, secrets and lies.

—— Reading Matters

An achingly brilliant piece of writing on passion and delusion. It's a pleasure to read from start to finish and reignites our love for fiction

—— Independent

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