Blurb: Rachel loves being at the centre of her large family. She has devoted herself fiercely to bringing up her three sons, and continues to do so now that they are all grown up - and getting married.

In return, the boys remain deeply attached to her, and to their father, Anthony, and to their childhood home on the wide, bird-haunted coast of Suffolk.

But when her youngest, Luke, gets married, Rachel finds that her control begins to slip away. Other women - her daughters-in-law - are usurping her position, and seem to be becoming more important to her boys than she is. She can no longer rely on her time-honoured role as provider and matriarch. Her daughters-in-law begin to do things in their individual and separate ways, and so, to her bewilderment and grief, do her husband and sons.

A crisis brings these subtle rifts to the surface, forcing the whole family to question old assumptions and find a new dynamic, if any of their relationships are going to survive.

A family in turmoil, though their problems do not amount to much in the grand scheme of things. It is basically about the empty nest syndrome and about a mother learning to stop meddling in things that are none of her business anymore. It was comforting to read that both the parents and their sons and their wives were prepared to look at themselves with different eyes and make an effort to change their ways. In my experience that hardly ever happens in real life. Everyone is always so convinced he/she is in the right. I very much liked the setting of this story (the coastal area of Suffolk) and I learned a lot about birds and the drawing of them. Nice straightforward read.

In de centrale hal op de begane grond, op het folderrek bij de koffie-automaat.