This really fired my imagination for some reason; I’m not sure I know why. It’s a collection of short stories, which aren’t really my favourite thing. They are loosely coupled together as being offshoots from Penelope Lively’s own life. It’s the old alternate history game made personal: “What if my life had taken a different turn?”. And I found it quite compelling. It’s all fiction but weakly linked together with fact and I found the junctions and the similarities and differences between the alternates lives interesting.