The Prime Minister is on his way to Bethlehem for a summit that will make or break his ministry. If he can strike a deal here, on this symbolic scrap of almost-neutral territory carved from the Ankara Pact, Britain will gain unprecedented access to Soviet oil and the way of life that has persevered since the end of the War will be radically upended.

It's not that Laura doesn't understand this is important – she just has more important things on her mind.

This weekend is May Day weekend, and she is going home – back to the village where she grew up and where her family, her friends and her partner still live – for the first time in months; the first time in too long. Weighted down with guilt, fraught with anticipation, she makes her way up the valley aboard the famous little steam train, the Darling Buds Express.