Bethan Roberts Books in Order

The discovery of fifteen-year-old Robert’s body by the pools unsettles a small English community in the 1980s. The lives of six ordinary people reveal the tensions, private disappointments and fragile relationships surrounding his death.

In 1936 Sussex, inexperienced Kitty Allen becomes cook to a wealthy American and her bohemian household. As her employers’ ideals collide with their behavior, Kitty finds an ally in the gardener while navigating the family’s growing turmoil.

Nula entrusts her young son Samuel to her cousin Maggie, hoping a family connection will make childcare easier. Their shared past and Maggie’s increasingly consuming attachment to the boy turn an intimate arrangement into a threat.

Gladys Presley’s devotion to her son Elvis carries them through poverty and toward an extraordinary new life. As his fame grows, this imagined portrait of their relationship explores the loneliness and strain behind their intense bond.

In 1950s Brighton, policeman Tom becomes the center of a relationship involving Marion and museum curator Patrick. Social intolerance makes marriage a refuge and love a secret, leaving all three caught between desire, fear, and damaging choices.