The Line Between Us

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There’s no denying true love…

Ifor is the gardener at Nanagalan, an ancient manor house situated on the Welsh borders.

Despite working hard at his grammar-school education, his mother persuades him to take the job as a gardener’s boy for the local gentry.

It is here that he meets and falls in love with Ella, the daughter of the house.

At a time when lines between the classes are rigidly drawn, Ifor is obliged to stifle his passion and forego his true feelings.

As the years go by, he does all he can to avoid scandal and he marries Jenny, the local librarian.

In spite of his good intentions, his love for Ella is so all-consuming that it casts a dark shadow over his relationship with his wife.

When the war arrives, Ifor enlists to fight and is one of a small number of soldiers left behind in France after the evacuation from Dunkirk.

The British government sends a requisitioned liner to recover the stragglers from St Nazaire in Brittany, but the Lancastria is bombed by the Germans and Ifor is left battling for survival in the icy waters.

As he struggles to keep afloat amongst the wreckage, his abiding passion for Ella and his determination to see her again are what help him to survive.

The story comes full circle with him being dragged from the wreckage of the Lancastria by a French trawler.

Will he make it home alive and finally find a way to tell Ella his true feelings, or will the connection between them be shut off forever?

Dedicated to the 4,000 souls lost in the sinking of the Lancastria, Kate Dunn’s poignant novel The Line Between Us tells a story of unconsummated love, whilst exploring the implacable class divisions which defined the early part of the twentieth century.

Praise for Kate Dunn

'A beautifully crafted tale of a Welsh boy growing to manhood between the wars and of a love tantalisingly out of reach.' – Elizabeth Darrell, bestselling author of At The Going Down of the Sun

'A heart rending love story inspired by one of the unsung tragedies of the Second World War – the sinking of the Lancastria.' – Joanna Lumley

Kate Dunn comes from a long line of writers and actors – she is the niece of the poet Hugo Williams and the actor Simon Williams. Kate followed her family into theatre touring around Britain, the Far and Middle East and appeared in three West End plays, as well as a number of television productions. She has a PhD in Drama from Manchester University. Following the birth of her son Jack, she turned to writing and now has several books published.