'A must' PATRICK GALE author of Notes from an Exhibition A tender story of mothers
daughters and breaking family patterns from the author of bestseller My Policeman which became
the hit film starring Harry Styles When Winnie is happy Lillian is happy too. It's the
mid-1960s and Lillian Wells is a clever teenager with a daring pixie cut tangerine mini-dress
and new boyfriend Jim who works at the brewery. Even better he lives across the road so
she's never far from her bee-hived high-heeled single mother Winnie who is prone to attacks
of the nerves. But Lillian harbours secret dreams of going to art school in London. When she
gets in how will she tell her mother - and Jim - that she's leaving Abingdon - and them?
Forty years later Lillian's own daughter Rachel is heading off to university but Lillian is
not sure either of them are ready. She sees herself and Winnie in Rachel who is ambitious and
intelligent but also prone to nervous habits. As Lillian tries to bite her tongue about
Rachel's symptoms she is reminded of what everyone in Abingdon used to say: It's a short road
to Longbrook... the local institution for the mentally ill. Lillian knows this is all too true
but in a family where secrets run through generations like the rushing waters of the local
river can she bring herself to break the cycle and tell Rachel the truth about her past?
'Roberts is an exceptionally tender and empathetic writer' GRAZIA 'Profoundly moving and
utterly comepelling' JAKE ARNOTT author of The Long Firm
