From amazon.co.uk:

"Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster, with sensible and sardonic Patrica aged five, greedy cross-patch Gillian who refused to be ignored, and Ruby...Ruby tells the story of The Family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life."

I picked this up dirt cheap at a charity shop, thinking it was on the wishlist of a bookcrosser I was planning to rabck. Turns out it was the wrong book, but I'm sure it will still find a loving home somewhere.

I read it years back and enjoyed it. Recently I heard Kate Atkinson read out the coronation scene when she was doing a talk at the Royal Museum, Edinburgh. She was ever so entertaining, and explained that many of the objects used by characters in the novel were actually things that Atkinson or her family owned. Some of them like the children's coronation book she still has!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to a bookcrosser as part of 2008's holiday gift giving

Thanks for sending me this holiday gift from my wishlist LittleSuz! It's one of the BBC Big Read top 200 and I'm looking forward to reading it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is a great book and I enjoyed reading it. I liked the way objects, people and sayings became familiar and (sometimes) made more sense as they kept cropping up in the story over the years.

The book is now off to start a new life in the Bahamas with awesomealice (whose namesake is in the story). This is also part of my challenge to send a book to every country in the world and the Around The World Challenge 2009.

JPix was kind enough to send me this book, and I can hardly wait to read it. It has already been half-way around the world, so it was my pleasure to receive it.

Thank you SO much for your kindness & generosity.

Alice

CAUGHT IN SMITH'S BAY CAT ISLAND BAHAMAS

I found the book a delight to read, although I found the 'footnotes' to be a distraction throughout the book. So in order for me to enjoy it, I simply skipped them, lol.

I am now going to leave it here in Island HoppInn (resort), still on Cat Island.