Sadie Jones

'This is the story of how we came to Frith. And we're never, ever, ever leaving.'

Amy Connell and Lan Honey are having the best childhood, growing up on a West Country farm - three families, a couple of lodgers, goats, dogs and an orphaned calf called Gabriella Christmas.
The parents are best friends too. Originally from the city, they're learning about farming: growing their own vegetables, milking the goats, slaughtering chickens and scything the hay -

'Mind your eyes! Don't break your neck! Careful!'

The adults are far too busy to keep an eye on Amy and Lan, and Amy and Lan would never tell them about climbing on the high barn roof, or what happened with the axe that time, any more than their parents would tell them the things they get up to - adult things, like betrayal - that threaten to bring the whole fragile idyll tumbling down.

It’s 1957 and Lewis Aldridge, 19 years old and straight out of jail, is travelling home. His return will trigger the implosion not just of his family, but of a whole community. Kit Carmichael, aware of Lewis’s grief and rage, makes a vow to help. But in her attempts to set them both free, she fails to predict the painful and horrifying secrets that must first be forced into the open. Richard & Judy Bookclub

Hal Treherne is a young and dedicated soldier. When he is transferred to the Mediterranean, his wife Clara and their baby daughters join him. But action changes Hal and he soon becomes more and more distant.