The book

It's the coldest night of 1975. A young man with shock-red hair tears through the snowbound streets of Warrington's toughest housing estate. He is Robbie Fitzgerald, and he is running for his life - and that of his young family. In his heart, Robbie knows the odds are stacked against them. In this unbending northern town, he has married the beautiful brown nurse who once stitched up his wounds. Susheela is his Tamil princess, but in the real world the Fitzgeralds have to face up to prejudice, poverty, and naked hatred from their neighbours. Now Robbie has seen a way out, and he's sprinting to his date with destiny. This night starts a chain of events that will reverberate throughout this family - Robbie, Susheela, their son Vincent and unborn daughter, Ellie. Across two decades of struggle, aspiration, achievement, misunderstandings, near-misses and shattered dreams, Helen Walsh plunges us into their lives and loves. She shows herself to be a brilliant chronicler of our people and of our times. And in the Fitzgeralds, she has created a family who will stay in your heart, long after the final page.

The Reviews

Walsh . . . unflinchingly shows human beings consumed by a damage and hurt that turns them into the very monsters they had hoped to slay.
Anita Sethi, Independent

Walsh . . . is a lively, keen-eyed guide to Warrington and the north west. The subject matter is harrowing, but, as with Brass, Walsh's writing has a wonderful, propulsive exuberance.
Tim Teeman, The Times

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