The Second World War has been under way for a couple of years when a submarine commander is invalided out of active service, and returns to his ancestral home in South Wales to find that many changes, some subtle, some less so, have taken place. As time goes on he realises that he himself is changing too; in short, he's growing up!

Young Sir Harry Lyon has always known what he is, but that he should find love in a place he escaped from years before is a surprise to him; and the story of that love, for a most enigmatic person, carried this reviewer effortlessly through a long and absorbing novel. The identity of that person isn't the only mystery; there are several more that are revealed as time goes on.

I love the research that went into this, and the atmosphere of a nation at war, frequently surpassing itself, but falling short often enough to make me wince in sympathy. We brush shoulders with a figure or two from the Welsh heartland, and see story and song providing inspiration in this greatest of trials. Harry has a lot to go through before the end of the story – for instance, he's re-posted to a city that endures bombing raid after bombing raid - and his exhausted, dreamlike journey through a South Wales that seems to be mostly on fire will stay with me for a long time to come. Harry's true love has tests of equal severity to endure, but the ending can only be described as wholly satisfactory to this reviewer at least.

Adam Fitzroy is one of my favourite creators of m/m romance, and has provided me with many hours of engrossed reading; this story is one of his best. ( )