Sitting in his study, alone with his thoughts, a man starts to write a letter to his little granddaughter. Why? Because he wants her to understand, when she gets older, who her mother was, and how much she sacrificed.

It is a harrowing story, but it is also a great “love story” and, in places, humorous. A story of hopes and fears, courage in the face of adversity, disappointments and setbacks, and ultimately, the calm and dignified acceptance that what will be, will be.

But as Richard Rees’s story of his daughter unfolds, the reader realises with something nearing dread, that there is an earlier history, a previous parallel which must be understood to be overcome.

The resulting letter, Dear Abigail, is both heart-rending and tender by turn, and also an act of healing; an attempt to find meaning in an apparently godless universe, that leads, ultimately, to faith through a miracle of daffodils.

But above all. it is an account of what it means to be human.

- Mark Brittain, Daily Post