When a letter lands on Kate Hatchman's doormat from a complete stranger in South Africa, claiming to be a relative, her cousins immediately assume it's a scam. But the writer has a strong case, and Kate wants to believe in it. This is a story of two families, separated by 6000 miles, pulled together by a single unsuspected truth - and an even bigger lie. Covering more than fifty years, Distant Cousins moves between southern England and Cape Town, with the action set against, and affected by, a background of real international events.