Clare Morrall

On May 3rd, 1942, Alma Braithwaite and her fellow boarders at Goldwyn's school huddle in an air-raid shelter as bombs rain down on Exeter. When the girls emerge, the school is in ruins. Twenty-one years on, Alma teaches music at her old school. The arrival of a new student takes Alma back to that summer and the long shadow it cast on her life.

Quinn doesn’t look like a tramp, yet he lives on a roundabout in a caravan and survives on the leftovers from a nearby motorway service station. When Quinn’s reclusive existence is invaded he is forced to face his past and the uncomfortable truths it contains about himself, his sisters and his mother.