Being Henry Applebee – Celia Reynolds

Harold Fry meets Brief Encounters in this charming and poignant debut.‘She’s why you’re going to Edinburgh, isn’t she? I knew there must be a reason why you had to be on this train!’Henry blinked. He hoped he hadn’t come across from the outset as some sort of eccentric old fool.He took a breath. Felt the words gathering inside him. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘it’s all part of the story. A small story, perhaps, but it’s my story. One that’s shaped my world for the last sixty-five years.’Henry Applebee isn’t as young as he used to be. He’s also alone, and in love. After decades of searching, he boards a train from London to Edinburgh to find the woman he can’t forget, the woman he spent a fleeting weekend with fifty years before.His objective is simple: to make amends for a terrible mistake…But when Henry crosses paths with Ariel, a teenager from Wales, also bound to Edinburgh to fulfil her mother’s dying wish, his well-meaning quest takes an unexpected turn.