“Can you think of a really good memory? Perhaps you can see it when you close
your eyes. Now, imagine you could take it out and look at it whenever you wanted
to!” Turn of the century Brighton. A spark is ignited when wide-eyed Lottie Pye
enters Mr Parker’s photographic studio and discovers the new medium that will
shape her life, becoming a passion.

2009: Disgraced politician Sir James Hastings has resigned himself to living out his retirement in a secluded Surrey village. He doesn’t react when he learns that the mother who abandoned him as a baby has died at the age of 108: he presumed she had died many years ago. Brought up by his father, a charismatic war-hero turned racing driver, young James, torn between self-blame and longing, eventually dismissed her as the
‘villain’ of his childhood. But, when he inherits her life’s work - a photography collection spanning over six decades - he is forced to confront his past. Assisted by student Jenny Jones, who has recently lost her own mother to cancer, Sir James is persuaded to look at the photographs as if he is seeing through his mother’s eyes. And there he discovers an extraordinary tale of courage and sacrifice.

“Three. I have three stories,” Lottie tells her solicitor while putting her affairs in order. “But it was Oscar Wilde who said that a story is almost certainly a lie.”

‘A classy and engaging novel’ - Hilary Johnson