Shortlisted for the 2024 Hungerford Award, this moving account of a young queer woman living through the start of the AIDS epidemic is a tribute to found family, queer elders, and the courage it takes to care for community as it’s falling down around you.

Beginning in Bristol and moving to 1980s London, this novel follows Billie, a young queer woman, as she navigates the highs and lows of life, coming out as queer, and finding her chosen family, only to lose them again during the AIDS epidemic.

Thirty years on, Billie picks up her pen to celebrate the lives of these friends- quixotic Robert, Tolstoy the photographer, soft-spoken Eleanor, sweet-eyed Sasha, uncompromising Aggie, and Ted the dreamer. And, of course, Laura – the girl who has always captivated Billie, and the one person she can’t live without.

This is a story of queer joy, queer tragedy, and the strength to love deeply.