The Night Watch is the extraordinary story of four Londoners: Kay, who wandethe streets in mannish clothes, restless and searching . . . Helen, who harboa troubling secret. . . Viv, glamour girl, recklessly loyal to her soldier lover… and Duncan, an apparent innocent, struggling with demons of his own.

Moving back through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked- out streets, illicit liaisons and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, this is an astonishing novel.