1969. Florence Lawson, a 16-year-old schoolgirl who dreams of being an artist, finds herself pregnant and banished to one of the most remote parts of the UK.
1986. Dougie Munro, searching for adventure, leaves the Isle of Harris – the island of his birth – for art college and a career in London as a photographer.
2005. Nell Hartley, content with her life managing a care-in-the-community cafe in Colchester, discovers a shocking truth about her family.
Between the sprawl of London, suburban Essex, and the wild, unpredictable Outer Hebrides, three lives collide and interweave as questions are asked and secrets surface.

What happened to Florence?
Why is Dougie now so reluctant to return home?
How can Nell make peace with the lies she’s been told?

^{Freya North, Little Wing (2022)}

Little Wing is a novel about resilience, forgiveness and the true meaning of family, about finding one’s place in the world and discovering how we all belong somewhere and to someone.

This was my second book of 2022 and I couldn’t have chosen a better book, however I believe this book found me!

This is an exquisite story told with such love. So many real life issues are touched on through these stories and the author has faced each with care and respect. I shed many tears, much of which was down to the beautiful emotions the author created with the language used.

The story of Florence is told in such a gentle and beautiful way. I cannot begin to image how life was for a pregnant sixteen year old in the late 1960s being set away from home at the time where she needed her mother the most.

We meet Dougie in present day London where he is a photographer who spends his days photographing objects for product catalogues and we slowly discover why he feels unfulfilled and the long buried demons of his past.

Over in Colchester, Nell is finding life challenging. Her mum, Wendy, lives in a nearby care home and is increasingly lost inside her memories where she has started calling her Florence.

Of these three very different characters the author weaves the stories of every day lives in such a way that the reader can fully relate to the issues they are facing which I believe increases the empathy – and the flow of tears!

Much of the book is set on the Scottish island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. The author describes the island locations in such an evocative way it is clearly written from the heart. I spent a few years as a resident of Orkney, caring for my terminally ill mother and loved my time up there. The way the weather and landscapes were spoken of in the book brought so many memories back. This book certainly increased my longing to return to Orkney and now I want to visit Harris also! This is why I believe Little Wing found me!

Thank you to The Pigeonhole, Freya North and Welbeck Publishing for the opportunity to join the read-along for this novel.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories of ordinary people leading ordinary lives which when looked at from afar show the love that keeps us all going day after day.

Freya North has a website ( freya north.com ) where you can read latest news and find links to buy all available books.

You can also contact Freya North on social media:

• Facebook: /freya.north
• Instagram: /freya_north_author
• Twitter: /freya_north
• YouTube: /freyanorththeauthor

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