'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