The Mother of Invention

November 18th 1987. Abigail, a mother of two is making her way home to North London from a day's work at Selfridges. At Kings Cross, she gets caught up in the horrendous fire that kills 31 and injures 100. She escapes physically unscathed, but disorientated and desperate to get home to her children - nine year old Robert and six month old Samantha - she slips away from the rescue staff and begins an odyssey that instead takes her further from home. The further she gets, the freer she feels; the longer she's away, the harder it becomes to return.

Thirty years pass and Robert and Samantha (now Summer) chance upon a sketch of the two of them, in the window of a bric-a-brac shop in a rundown seaside town in Lincolnshire. It does not take them time to locate the picture's previous owner, living in an isolated cottage. Their Mother.

A heartwarming and heartbreaking exploration of family from Jem Lester, author of SHTUM