Lydia Weekes is distraught at the break-up of her marriage. When her young son, Charlie, makes friends with the local doctor, Jean Markham, her life is turned upside down.

Charlie tells his secrets to no one but the bees, but even he can’t keep his mother’s friendship to himself. The locals don’t like things done differently. As Lydia and the doctor become closer, the rumours start to fly and threaten to shatter Charlie’s world.

Shaw’s writing is lovely: elegant, subtle and haunting

— The Times

A memorable evocation of an era when homosexuality was a crime and abortion illegal … A committed and thoughtful writer

— Times Literary Supplement

A tender and unlikely page-turner

— Financial Times

A page-turning, involving read that makes you ask big questions about the world and its prejudices. Liberating and uplifting

— Jackie Kay

It gripped me like a vice, and I stopped doing anything else to get to the end and find out what was going to happen

— Andrew Davies

This brutal illustration of the resolute social values in the 1950s will probably find itself on a prize shortlist or two this year

— Bookseller