“There are different kinds of memory, conscious and unconscious. There are memories that the conscious mind goes over repeatedly, that are recalled, observed, caught like a snapshot of the time, and oneself in it, one of the figures in the picture. Memories like these become like history, fact-filed for recall, detached from emotion. But there are others that come back without conscious thought and that are experienced again, more or less vividly, like dream versions of themselves.”

On a cold morning in January 1961, eight-year-old Anna’s mother watched her mother disappear into the fog.

Later she was told that her mother would not be coming home again. She was dead, after her car apparently skidded on black ice on the road to London.

Later the same day a sensational story broke on the evening news. A Russian spy ring had been uncovered in London and several arrests had been made. Arrests of seemingly ordinary people who had lead double lives and carried extraordinary secrets.

Anna and her elder brother Peter were told little about their mother’s death, they didn’t attend her funeral and they were never taken to her grave. Was there father trying to protect them, or was it something else?

The two children thought it was something else. They linked the disappearance of their mother – a German refugee – with the spy case.

They begin their own investgation. At first Peter takes the lead, but later it is Anna.

It would be unfair to say more than that about the plot, but there is much more to be said about the book.

It grips from the first page and doesn’t let go.

The story shifts between periods and perspectives. It is sometimes a little difficult to keep track, but it serves the author well as she recreates England in the Cold War and the world that Anna sees just perfectly.

Georgina Harding writes wonderful prose and she shows great skill in creating characters who are utterly believable but also, ultimately, unknowable.

The themes are fascinating and well explored there are so many intriguing details.

It all adds up to a brilliant second novel!

I started reading The Solitude of Thomas Cave some weeks ago, but I put it down after just one chapter. Not because I didn’t like it – quite the opposite! I was so taken by the ideas, the prose, the images forming in my head, that I wanted to save the book for just the right day when I could get completely lost in it.

That day came a week ago and The Solitude of Thomas Cave has been echoing in my mind ever since.

The story begins in 1916, with a whaling ship sailing away south from the icy seas around Greenland. Winter is approaching, and yet a man has been left behind.

An argument among the crew provoked Thomas Cave into a bet with another crew member – that he could survive the winter alone in the Arctic. His fellow seafarers have little hope for his survival and try to dissuade him, but he is determined to remain behind. And so they leave him, with just basic shelter, food and supplies.

That was the opening chapter that captivated me.

The following chapters watch Thomas Cave, as he struggles to come to terms with not only the Arctic winter and with the pain and loss in his past that led him to the Arctic.

In the spring the Heartsease returns. What the crew find and what happens then it would be unfair to say. But what I can say is that the story remains intriguing right to the end.

The Solitude of Thomas Cave is a simple story quite beautifully told. Georgina Harding writes lovely prose – simple, but so evocative.

She paints wonderful pictures, and the chill and the isolation of Thomas Cave’s world are quite tangible.

And the story has so much to say. About man’s ability to survive, and indeed to do extraordinary things. And about his relationship with the world he lives in.

So this is a book with everything I look for – a captivating storyline, beautiful prose and thought-provoking ideas.

If only all books were like this!