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It looks like Ellie has lost the love of her life, and along with him goes the bijou flat in Primrose Hill and the five-star lifestyle. There’s not much left but to decamp back to the rather more humdrum confines of her mother and granddad’s house in Clapham. Finding herself back home and loveless isn’t all bad though; Ellie can always hit the backpacker trail again, or maybe even find a job that sticks—the solicitor’s office she’s temping in this time is at least trying to help those with real problems like keeping their kids or a roof over their heads. It’s nice spending time with her granddad Trevor, drinking proper “Welsh” tea from real china cups and looking out at the garden Trevor has coaxed from the London clay. There is even a distraction from her broken heart in the shape of hunky landscape gardener Gabriel. Just when it looks like everything is shaping up there’s a knock on the door that turns Trevor’s world upside down and takes them unexpectedly back to the Welsh Valleys in wartime.

Bethan Darwin is the founding partner of a solicitor’s practice, volunteers for the Cardiff Law Centre, and lectures on discrimination law. She is also the founder of Superwoman, a businesswomen’s charity networking group.