VIKKI HEYWOOD
It is 1951 and behind the counter of a modest post office in a leafy Buckinghamshire village Miss Dora Ham and Miss Beatrix Veal maintain their careful facade as respected local spinsters. Together they have built a life of quiet dignity and service in rural England. Now over the course of one pivotal day their carefully constructed world begins to fracture. Changes that will lead to heart-breaking decisions for Miss Veal and Miss Ham. At the heart of this intimate, moving and witty novel is a story of resilience, the dignity of love that cannot be spoken, and the challenges that come when the future no longer feels safe.
The moving and surprising story of a discreet love, put to its greatest test amongst the tuppenny-ha’penny stamps and mint imperials of a little English post office at the start of the 1950s.
Reverend Richard Coles
Tender, delightful and heartbreaking, I absolutely couldn't put this book down.
Karen McLeod
A gloriously warm-hearted tribute to the courage of hidden lives.
Francis Spufford
A beautiful book about a forgotten part of English history. Moving, deep, angry and at times very funny. A really lovely book in the true sense of a book to love.
Timberlake Wertenbaker
Touching, dramatic and wholly authentic – my mother read it in one voluptuous gulp.
Greg Mosse
A meticulously detailed evocation of a lost time and place, with skilful characterisation, absorbing social commentary and a beguiling sense of intimacy.
James Scudamore
‘We are delighted to discover Vikki Heywood, her wonderful debut novel leapt out of our inbox and into our hearts, a tender yet sharply observed look at lesbian love later in life. As they face a pivotal moment, the indomitable Miss Veal and Miss Ham look back over forty decades together’
Public companions, private lovers…. It is 1951 and behind the counter of a modest post office in a leafy Buckinghamshire village Miss Dora Ham and Miss Beatrix Veal maintain their careful façade as respected local spinsters. But their true story is one of passion: suffragist activists who fell in love at a rally in the 1900s, danced in London's secret gay clubs between the wars, and comforted one another during the first night of the Blitz. Together they have built a life of quiet dignity and service in rural England.
Now over the course of one pivotal day their carefully constructed world begins to fracture. Through Beatrix’s wry perspective we witness the severe impact of post-war changes on their peaceful existence. Changes that will lead to heart-breaking decisions for Miss Veal and Miss Ham.
At the heart of this intimate, moving and witty novel is a story of resilience, the dignity of love that cannot be spoken, and the challenges that come when the future no longer feels safe.