The Hand That First Held Mine (Reissue): The AwardWinning Sunday Times Bestseller from the Author of Hamnet

The Sunday Times top 10 bestselling novel from the author of HAMNET and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT*Over 400,000 copies sold*Winner of the 2010 Costa Novel AwardExquisitely sensual Emma Donoghue, author of Room-----Fresh out of university and in disgrace, Lexie Sinclair is waiting for life to begin. When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep in rural Devon, she realises she can wait no longer, and leaves for London. There, Lexie carves out a new life for herself at the heart of bohemian 1950s Soho, with Innes by her side.In the present, Ted and Elina no longer recognise their lives after the arrival of their first child. Elina, an artist, wonders if she will ever paint again, while Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood - memories that dont tally with his parents version of events.As Teds search for answers gathers momentum, so a portrait is revealed of two women separated by fifty years, but linked by their passionate refusal to settle for ordinary lives._____The journey this novel invites us on is wonderful, involving time travel, heart ache, elation, confusion, freedom, nostalgia and art Scotland on SundayA skilful, hurtful writer, capable of imbuing the everyday with weight and colour, ridiculously pleasurable to read GuardianGenuinely unputdownable Literary Review_____ What readers are saying; I look up and several days have passed, unnoticed, because Ive been completely absorbed... at the end, I sat back, breathless Lexie has become one of my favourite heroines At times I hold my breath, filled with emotion. Beautiful