It's that special time of the year - the annual Children's Hospital Book Market is on! I made a short visit on Saturday with my elder daughter and we didn't come home empty handed. I got some large-print books for my aunt and several books for myself, too.

I've read several books by Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger, Perfect Happiness, and The Road to Lichfield. I've been very favourably impressed by this writer so couldn't resist a very nice hardcover copy of Consequences at the book sale. The cover photo also called out "buy me, buy me", so I did. :)

I loved this novel. Penelope Lively's beautiful, understated prose successfully evokes the changing face of British life from the mid-thirties to the 21st century. When Lorna Bradley meets Matt Faraday in St. James's Park on a June day in 1935 their lives change and those of future generations are set in motion. Lorna is from a well-to-do family but has never felt she belonged and rebels against social expectations. Matt is a promising artist, a wood engraver. When they decide to marry her parents are deeply disappointed. Lorna and Matt leave London for Somerset where they set up home in a fairly primitive cottage. They have no running water, an outdoor privy, and an assortment of mismatched furniture and crockery, but they are happy. Lorna embraces her new life, learning varied new skills such as gardening and cooking, even skinning rabbits. Lively's descriptions make it seem an idyllic existence and soon they are joined by a daughter, Molly. But the second world war intervenes and life changes again. Lorna must make a new life for herself and Molly. The novel skips some years and then focuses on Molly, and later on Molly's daughter, Ruth. All three are independent women. Their lives are shaped by external events beyond their control, choices they make, and the random small happenings and coincidences of life. It makes one reflect on the chain of events, major and minor, that led to one's own existence and life, the connections and love that bond one generation to the next.