The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

In this rather tragic but beautifully told tale of World War II, Sarah Waters mines the depths of the human heart, with its varied expressions of love, secretive and open, permitted and illicit, selfless and jealous, gay and straight.

A favourite line came from a conversation between two women. When Helen expresses her feeling of unworthiness to Julia, her friend and lover answers with a phrase that drops readers in the centre of London, the war, and the class differences of the time.

"You mutt," she says with calm reassurance.

Enjoy the book, the audiobook, or the film.