On the coldest night of 1975, a young man with shock-red hair tears though the snowbound streets of Warrington's toughest housing estate. He is Robbie Fitzgerald, and he is running for his life - and that of his young family. In his heart, Robbie knows the odds are stacked against them. In this unbending Northern town, he has married the beautiful brown nurse who once stitched up his wounds. Susheela is his Tamil Princess, but in the real world, the Fitzgeralds have to face up to prejudice, poverty and sheer naked hatred from their neighbours. Now Robbie has seen a way out, and he's sprinting to his date with destiny... Over thirteen years of struggle, aspiration, achievement, misunderstandings, near-misses and shattered dreams, Helen Walsh plunges us into the lives and loves of the young, doomed Fitzgerald family. She shows herself to be a brilliant chronicler of our people and our times. And in the Fitzgeralds, she has created a family who will stay in your heart, long after the final page. Once Upon A Time In England offers an unforgettable portrait of the world in which we live, and confirms Helen Walsh as a writer of searing power.

This book is part of a Canongate Books giveaway and readalong.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/6/6243341/3

Really thrilled to have scooped this book from Canongate and can't wait to start reading it. As usual with their books, the cover art is fantastic and echoes the synopsis on the back cover beautifully. I really can't wait to crack on with reading this one as it looks like exactly the kind of thing I'm in the mood for. Especially looking forward to sharing my views and experience with other Bookcrossers in the above mentioned readalong.

So I finished this on the bus on the way to work (I nearly lost the book once and had to bound back into Tesco and pray it was still where I'd left it. I had about 50 pages to go). There may be some hints/clues/spoilers in the review below so don't read it if you haven't read the book yet.

I was not sure how on earth the author was going to pull this book together but wow. I too found myself getting very uncomfortable at the funeral. Every funeral I've ever attended (and thankfully it hasn't been many) I have found myself sitting on the edge of my seat wanting to scream 'talk about the deceased', stop waffling. I was mentally and almsot physically urging someone to leap up and say something. The prose that brought me to tears was this: "Please. Dad. Get up and say something...". I was like YES, bloody hell, DO it.

Overall, this brutal fairy tale was difficult to read with characters who were not always likeable but it held me rapt at times and I wanted to know that it would all work out happily every after.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left in the empty Guardian stand in the foyer of the Southbank Centre after an amazing Patti Smith performance. She rocked the Hall with her return to the Meltown Festival. I hope this gritty book finds an interested reader among the Smith fans.