“One of those books you’re likely to remember all your life.” —Alexandra Shulman, Vogue (UK) For readers of The Orphan Train and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society comes “not just a story of love but a story of loss, one whose voice will touch even the coldest of hearts.” — BookPage England, 31st August 1939: The world is on the brink of war. As Hitler prepares to invade Poland, thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the impending Blitz. Torn from her mother, eight-year-old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large Yorkshire estate which has been opened up to evacuees by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, an enigmatic, childless couple. Soon Anna gets drawn into their unraveling relationship, seeing things that are not meant for her eyes and finding herself part-witness and part-accomplice to a love affair with unforeseen consequences. A story of longing, loss, and complicated loyalties, combining a sweeping narrative with subtle psychological observation, The Very Thought of You is not just a love story but a story about love. “One of those books you’re likely to remember all your life.” —Alexandra Shulman, Vogue (UK) “Without question one of the best debuts I’ve read in recent years.” —John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas “Melancholic, mysterious, and heartbreakingly gorgeous.” — The Times (London) “A rite-of-passage novel... both enriched and haunted by the complicated and dangerous grown-up world of love.” — The Telegraph (UK) “Moving.... A sincere attempt to depict the reverberations of war—chronicling fractured relationships and the inability to love in the right way.” — The Guardian (UK) “Irresistibly romantic.... A highly-charged story of love, longing, betrayal and loss... written with such conviction that you can’t help but be swept along by its intensity.” — The Mail on Sunday (Toronto) “An unmistakably extraordinary story.... There are no predictable twists and turns here, only the realization that sometimes the purest love stories are the most memorable.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Alison tactfully tackles the notion of loneliness—be it in a foreign setting or a familiar home—along with expertly describing complicated relationships that are fraught with passion.... The Very Thought of You is not just a story of love but a story of loss, one whose voice will touch even the coldest of hearts.” — Bookpage Rosie Alison grew up in Yorkshire, and read English at Keble College, Oxford. She spent ten years directing television documentaries before becoming a film producer at Heyday Films. She is married with two daughters and lives in London. The Very Thought of You is her first novel. The Very Thought of You Prologue May 1964 My dearest , Of all the many people we meet in a lifetime, it is strange that so many of us find ourselves in thrall to one particular person. Once that face is seen, an involuntary heartache sets in for which there is no cure. All the wonder of this world finds shape in that one person, and thereafter there is no reprieve, because this kind of love does not end, or not until death— From Baxter’s Guide to the Historic Houses of England (2007) Any visitor travelling north from York will pass through a flat vale of farmland before rising steeply onto the wide upland plateau of the North Yorkshire Moors. Here is some of the wildest and loveliest land in England, where high rolling moorland appears to reach the horizon on every side, before subsiding into voluptuous wooded valleys. These moors are remote and empty, randomly scattered with silent sheep and half-covered tracks. It is unfenced land of many moods. In February the place is barren and lunar, prompting inward reflection. But late in August this wilderness surges into bloom, igniting a purple haze of heather which sweeps across the moors as if released to the air. This vivid wash of color mingles with the oaks and ashes of the valleys below, where the soft limestone land flows with numerous streams and secret springs. It is hallowed territory, graced with many medieval monasteries, all now picturesque ruins open to the sky. Rievaulx, Byland, Jervaulx, Whitby, Fountains—these are some of the better-known abbeys in these parts, and their presence testifies to the fertile promise of the land. The early monastic settlers cleared these valleys for farming, and left behind a patchwork of fields marked by many miles of drystone walls. Nearly two centuries later, long after the monasteries had been dissolved, the Georgian gentry built several fine estates in the valleys bordering these moors. Hovingham Hall, Duncombe Park, Castle Howard and others. Trees were cleared for new vistas, grass terraces levelled and streams diverted into ornamental lakes—all to clarify and enhance the natural patterns of the land, as was the eighteenth-century custom. One of the finest of these houses, if not necessarily the largest,