'It's hard to find a word out of place or a phrase that jars... an absolute pleasure.'
(Ben Mason, Conville & Walsh)
It's 1978 and Sheralee Sawyer is dazzled by the stage lights of the Birmingham Hippodrome. She meets Col, the roguish lighting technician and discovers the secret tunnel between the theatre's backstage area and the British Legion next door. However Sheralee is unable to keep her home life and boyfriend, Owen, separate from her explorations. Owen has made friends with the soldiers in the Legion. It's the eve of Thatcherism, and by the end of the first chapter no one is sure of what future lies out there for them.
The Falklands, the urban 'underclass' , the traveller and festival communities, the 80s stock market crash, soldiers returning from war - this novel covers unwritten ground which resonates uncannily with contemporary events. Travel with Sheralee and Owen as they negotiate the long shadows cast by their own and their families' pasts, including Owen's grandfather's First World War history, which Owen tries to disentangle. Journey through the tunnels which connect the disparate spaces and link lives and destinies together in surprising and invigorating ways.
Jackie Gay's writing 'possesses tenacious energy and moments of pure, languid lyricism' (Janice Galloway). 'Gripping and mysterious, as good fiction should be' (Jonathan Coe)