Unexpected tears prickled the backs of Leo’s eyes as a rush of emotion so strong that it made him draw in a sharp breath assaulted him. Yet here Leo was, an adult now rather than a boy, and his uncle reduced to an echo of the man Leo remembered-physically, at least. The sea came and went with the tides, the sands shifted, but the rocks were constant. He was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place, a place that had barely changed since his childhood. Leo’s heart felt suddenly too large for his chest. They stood in silence, watching and listening to the crash of the waves.

It was almost completely dark now, and the moon was rising, casting streaks of bright silver on the oil-black water. On the beach they crunched along the shingle to the edge of the rocks, then turned to look out over the sea. I wanted the two places that Leo is torn between to be as different as they could possibly be. Cornwall was also the perfect foil for London in terms of a contrasting setting. It’s a part of England that I visit regularly, so I have a mental library of images to use for setting the scene. When I had the idea for Passing Through, Cornwall was the obvious choice. I tend to set my books cities or towns, but often have my characters visiting the countryside as part of the story. This is the first book that I’ve written that has a truly rural setting-unless you count my free short story, Coming Home, which is also set in Cornwall. You seem to love the less populated areas of the western UK, how did you pick the wilds of Cornwall for the setting for a book about a workaholic Londoner? It’s time to seize the day-if it’s not already too late. But having learned much from his stay with his uncle, Leo doesn’t want to look back and wish he’d done things differently. When some unexpected news gives Leo the chance to return to Cornwall, he’s afraid it will be too late to rekindle things with Tris. On his return to London, Leo finds himself grieving for more than just the loss of his uncle. In Tris’s arms, in the wilds of Cornwall, Leo finds a peace he’d forgotten existed. Gay, but still half in the closet, he and Leo bond over their affection for Edwin, and the pull of attraction between them proves too strong to ignore. When he goes to Cornwall to stay with his terminally ill uncle, Edwin, love is the last thing Leo expects to find.

His job in London takes all his energy and commitment. Leo is a lonely workaholic with no time for romance in his life.

Passing Through by Jay Northcote