Grace and Mary

By 'quite simply one of the best writers we have' (Sunday Telegraph), a profoundly moving story spanning three generations.

John visits his ageing mother Mary in her nursing home by the sea and mourns the slow fading of her mind.

Hoping to shore up her memory, he prompts her with songs, photographs and questions about the 1940s, when she was a young woman and he a child in a small Cumbrian town.

But he finds that most of all it is her own mother she longs for - Grace, the mother she barely knew. John sets out to recreate their buried family history, delving into the secrets and silences of Mary's fractured childhood as he imagines the life of her spirited mother.

Reaching from the late 19th century to the present, this becomes a deeply moving, reflective elegy on three generations linked by a chain of love, loss, and courage.

'This understated tale of three Cumbrian generations is one of his most heartfelt works' Mail on Sunday

'It's a novel that deserves to be read slowly, the details cherished' The Scotsman

'I loved it' Pat Barker

'It is a gem' Independent