Bobby Shafter

Bobby Shafter is a different kind of love story. Young Bobby meets Elizabeth on a train leaving King's Cross at midnight. She is going to a Yorkshire village to claim her inheritance; he is on the run from both sides of the law. It suits them both to team up for a while, at least until the big old house that is now Elizabeth's home has been made habitable. When Elizabeth finds out that her companion is not what he seems she decides to help him.
They share a sense of humour and a gift for mimicry, but when it comes to background, age, education and class they have little in common. When convenience turns to friendship, and then to something more, Elizabeth finds a bold and novel way to overcome those differences. Soon they are sharing the house with three alter egos who make carefully choreographed entrances and exits. Elizabeth's father comes to visit, and he is not what he seems either.
The story is set in Yorkshire in 1955, and every page evokes the time and place – from gossip to gangsters, steam engines to cider-making, coconut shies to corporal punishment, death duties to darts. There are hyperlinked endnotes and a glossary, to inform readers for whom Yorkshire in 1955 is culturally remote.
One might call this book a comedy of manners as much as a love story. The tone is lighthearted and the satire is never unkind.
Three years later the protagonists appear again in a sequel: Farley's Bend. This story starts with the discovery of a dead motorcyclist beside a country road. An accident...?