About the Book: Held
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a
blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is
lost to memory a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his
lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast as the snow falls.
1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river alive,
but not still whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography
business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into
the present,