The Blue Hour – two love affairs and two summers, 75 years apart…the literary equivalent of a strong gin and tonic on a warm summer’s evening: refreshing, invigorating and inspiring…a stunningly good debut. Beautifully written, this honest, emotional and moving novel had me hooked from the opening pages. I could not stop reading until I had finished, and when I had finished, I missed the characters. - Novelist Louise Douglas. Damaged by a toxic relationship, Ava Westmorland flees the ruins of her life in London for a carer’s job in a Cornish village. She hopes a combination of countryside and coast will heal her shattered heart. But she has yet to face tyrannical Tilly Barwise; the 89-year-old she will be looking after. Sharp, cantankerous and with an acid tongue, Tilly is the polar opposite of a sweet old lady. She has lived a thrillingly full life of romance and intrigue – and is determined shy Ava will follow in her doddering footsteps. Through Tilly’s outrageous antics and bittersweet reminiscences, she shows Ava what it is to embrace life. As the pair form an unlikely bond, Tilly reveals the details of a wartime love affair with an American that ended in tragedy – but not quite in the way Tilly always believed. M J Greenwood has drawn a rich, funny, and poignant portrait of two women reluctantly bound by circumstance amid a landscape that retains a unique beauty, even in the midst of unwelcome change.