‘Sanctuary is a masterpiece. As someone who has spent many years inside the UK’s asylum decision making world, I found Tom Gaisford’s portrayal of the system deeply moving and uncannily resonant. Although fictional, it captures the emotional terrain of those early professional years navigating the impossible curves and crevices of a system that you try to navigate with integrity, and the weight of responsibility for people whose futures you care about more than you can really ever admit.

The characters feel utterly believable, the dilemmas painfully real, and the narrative’s blend of romance, moral purpose and human vulnerability is compelling right from the first page. I could not put this book down.

Gaisford has written something rare: a story that entertains but also illuminates. It offers genuine insight into what it is like to work inside this world, and into the extraordinarily challenging operating environment faced by both asylum seekers and the practitioners who support them.

Sanctuary is an important contribution that deserves to be widely read by anyone seeking a deeper, more human understanding of contemporary asylum practice in Britain.’