Stay Where You Are and Then Leave

London, 1914. Alfie Summerfield’s fifth birthday coincides with the outbreak of war. His father Georgie promises that he will not enlist, yet soon joins the army and disappears into the Western Front. As the conflict continues, Alfie’s mother works to keep the household together and the boy begins shining shoes at King’s Cross station to help support them.

A chance encounter reveals that Georgie is alive in a military hospital, suffering from what would become known as shell shock. Alfie sets out to understand why his father has been hidden from the family and how he might be brought home. Through a child’s perspective, the novel connects the British home front to the psychological injuries of industrial warfare, showing fear, stigma and bureaucratic secrecy alongside shortages and separation.