Of Love and War

In 1921 Lieutenant Henry Gilpin arrives in the mining town of Crouden to investigate men whose conduct during the First World War has been questioned. Jack Aylward’s name is central to the enquiry, and the surviving veterans return in memory to the mud, fear and divided loyalties of the Western Front. The war has ended, but its losses continue to determine marriages, friendships and reputations.

Kitty Aylward had promised her first husband Billy that, if he died, she would marry his closest friend Jack. Gilpin’s investigation now threatens to expose what happened before Billy’s death and why Jack survived. The novel treats official judgement as another form of postwar violence, forcing a community to confront guilt, grief and the bargains made by soldiers who believed they might never return.