I’ve had this book for years; I bought it soon after I enjoyed Atkinson’s first book Behind the scenes at the museum and even though I’ve subsequently enjoyed her third book Emotionally weird I’ve tried to get into this book several times without getting anywhere.

I finally managed to get through the beginning (the very beginning is great, then I found it got tedious with trees instead of characters and gave up, it then gets back to being good again - yes the trees are very relevant but they aren’t interesting to read about) and really enjoyed the rest of the book. It’s very serious and very silly; plays hell with time and leaps backwards and forwards in stories enough to make you dizzy as 16 year old Isobel tells us, one way or another, about the life of her family at ‘Arden’ in Hawthorne Close in 1960.

Excellent fun to read, apart from that very beginning bit, but in the end not quite as satisfying as the other two Atkinson books I’ve read.