It is 1942, and the Second World War has been going on for three wearying years. Work is hard in the Ulster mills in Northern Ireland where Alex Hamilton struggles to keep overworked machines going, just as his wife Emily tries to provide food and comfort not only for their own children, but for the many young American soldiers stationed nearby. Bad news comes daily, but there is still a welcome for friends and strangers, and moments of happiness come at even the darkest of times.

Author Biography

Anne Doughty was born in Armagh. She is the author of A Few Late Roses (longlisted for the Irish Times fiction prize), Stranger in the Place and Summer of the Hawthorn. After many years in England she returned to Belfast in 1998 and wrote the first of a series of stand-alone novels that make up the Hamiltons sequence.