Inside the whale - Jennie Rooney

Stephanie Sandford, recently widowed, must tell her family the truth but the past is indistinct and its complicated. First, there was her mum, who developed an anxious streak after marrying the wrong Reg. Then there was the young man from the dairy who taught Stevie to swim and broke her heart. War came, and four years spent chopping root vegetables in the canteen of the Sun Pat peanut factory on the Old Kent Road, followed by wet London nights, with the Doodle Bugs slipping through the sky like huge silvery fish. Its not until Stevies under an umbrella with Jonathan that Stevie finally starts to sense safety.Meanwhile, Michael Roystons memories are squashed into a shoebox (along with Queen Matildas Dicken Medal for bravery) ready for his move into hospital. Years ago, he trained military carrier pigeons for the Royal Corps of Signals in Cairo yet his own homecoming has taken a lifetime. Michael has never been good at putting things into words; hes more comfortable with the click of Morse code. But Anna, a young healthcare assistant, has the patience and rare tenderness to eke out his story. And so he begins.Stories have the power to change things, and this one will alter Stevies past and transform Annas future

Jennie Rooney was born in Liverpool in 1980. She read History at the University of Cambridge and taught English in France before moving to London to work as a lawyer. Inside the Whale is her first novel.