In 1960s Glasgow, anti-nuclear activists Judith and Jimmy fall in love. But their future hopes are dashed when their protestors' squat is raided and many, including Jimmy, are sent to prison. Pregnant and with no word from Jimmy, Judith is forced to enter an unmarried mothers' home, give up their baby and learn to live with her grief.
More than half a century later, Judith's Mending Shop restores broken treasures, just as Judith herself has been bound back together by her late, much-missed partner, Catherine. But her tranquillity is shattered when Jimmy-so different and yet somehow the same-reappears, yearning to unpick the painful past.
Realising they each know only half of the other's story, Jimmy and Judith finally break the silence that tore apart what might have been their family. Amid heartbreak and hope, how much can now be mended?
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For most customers who enter the shop, the thing they most want mending is the past.- Chapter One
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(Lake Union Publishing, 24 January 2023, e-book, 312 pages, borrowed from @AmazonKindle via #PrimeReading)
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I really enjoyed When I First Held You. It reminded me of books I've read about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland. I didn't realise there were similar places in the UK which shocked me. I liked the way the chapters move between the present with Jimmy and Judith reconnecting and Jimmy finding out what happened to his baby and Judith all those years ago and the past with what happens to Judith when Jimmy is sent to prison. I also liked the chapters narrated by their granddaughter who gets to have a relationship with them. This is a heart-breaking, but gripping read.