Never Closer

When your life changes in a moment, how do you rewrite your story?

In 1940s Britain, with the Second World War raging, Alice is working in a laboratory developing a new miracle medicine. Made to leave school at sixteen and abandon her aspiration to be a teacher, she learns instead how curing people may be her destiny.

In the present day, Jo, already in a failing marriage, is devastated when she hears her daughter's life is on a knife edge. At her bedside Jo starts to read Alice's diary, found the previous day in a vintage handbag.

A door opens onto the past, revealing a young woman's fierce determination to succeed against all odds. Past and present overlap and merge as life-changing events resonate across the gulf of time.

This is a story of a mother whose life is blown apart. Now she must find a way to put it back together. Can Alice show her the way?

"I devoured this book. The characters are rich and their stories compelling." - Goodreads reviewer

"This is a tale that will wring your heart and feed your soul. Don't pass it up!" - I'm a Voracious Reader

"Timeless themes, beautifully packaged." - Something by Jane

Margot Shepherd is a British author who was born in Yorkshire where she spent her childhood. She now lives in rural Sussex with her husband and Springer Spaniel, Genni. When she's not writing she works in medical research at the University of Surrey. She writes about family relationships with a particular emphasis on women and science from a female point of view.

Margot has an MA in Creative Writing & Publishing from West Dean College in Sussex for which she received a distinction and the Vice Chancellors prize.

She has always been a voracious reader of literary fiction (currently, her favourite authors include Maggie O'Farrell, Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett).

Margot's other interests include her lifelong passion for gardening and travelling extensively around Europe. Sicily is a favourite destination where she can escape the British winters.

Never Closer is her debut novel.