Christopher Goodwin sadly never meets his son Peter, but both are painfully shy and uneasy in their attempts to fulfil their longing for love and family life. Each finds a woman who can bring him happiness, but fate intervenes and tragedy strikes. The outbreak of war changes Christopher's life drastically and he witnesses hatred, violence and death at close hand. Peter's life is shaped by his father's wartime experiences, and when he seems to be on the brink of happiness disaster strikes from the drug-filled streets of modern London. A superb first novel written with outstanding literary skill and a trace of Dickensian scepticism, The Captive Shadowis a compelling, richly observed and thought provoking novel which alternates between two starkly contrasting periods."