Book
Only Time Will Tell
First published 2011
Harry Clifton grows up in the dockside streets of Bristol believing that his father died in the First World War. His singing voice wins him a place at a prestigious school, where he becomes friends with Giles Barrington and comes into contact with the wealthy family that owns the shipping line on which his father worked. Questions about Harry’s parentage draw his mother Maisie, Sir Walter Barrington and the secretive Hugo Barrington into a conflict over class, legitimacy and inheritance.
The story follows Harry from the 1920s through the Depression and the mounting crisis of the late 1930s. Education offers him a route beyond poverty, but loyalty to his mother and the Barrington family complicates every choice. As Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Harry must decide whether to accept an Oxford place or enter wartime service, carrying the unresolved truth about his birth into the next volume.
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