When 18-year-old Helen Ashton meets Joe McCarthy on the moors of Northumberland she instantly falls in love, certain that her humdrum life had taken a new turn. And for several years it did.
On the eve of the First World War, Helen learns that she is pregnant with Joe's child, but before she can tell him, he enlists in the army and is despatched to war. She never heard from Joe again, and believed him dead.
When their son, Ben, was born, Helen,...