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Tender, evocative TLS Richly engaging SpectatorA Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next Observer A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively written Irish Examiner_______Laura, a laundress, meets her young husband when they are both placed in service in Teignmouth in 1914. They have a baby, Charles, but his father returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave Laura a widow. As a new war looms, Charles signs up for the navy as a coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to a more colourful life in action sees him blossom, as he experiences the possibility of death, and the excitement – even terror – of a love that is as clandestine as his work. _______ Stands with the best queer literary fiction of a historical bent, illuminated as it is by Gale s devilish wit and talent for both social observation and intricacies of character Sydney Morning Herald A wonderful novel – a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist Mail on Sunday A deeply moving novel. The portrait of a complex relationship that constricted as much as it sustained is brilliantly done The Tablet; 416 pages; 02 02 2023