Author:Roddy Doyle,Niall Buggy

Brought to you by Penguin.
It's 1924, and New York is the centre of the universe.
Henry Smart, on the run from Dublin, falls on his feet. He is a handsome man with a sandwich board, behind which he stashes hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. He catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district and soon there are eyes on his back and men in the shadows. It is time to leave, for another America...
Chicago is wild and new, and newest of all is the music.
Furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. His music is everywhere, coming from every open door, every phonograph. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his colour; there are places a black man cannot go, things he cannot do. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.
© Roddy Doyle 2004 (P) Penguin Audio 2010
Her novels are still very much to be enjoyed...Any writer who can both educate and thrill a reader of any age deserves to be remembered and find new fans...One only has to look at the TV/Media to see that the appetite for this kind of writing is still very much there
—— Matt Bates , WH Smith TravelPlaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama
—— New York TimesJean Plaidy, by the skilful blending of superb storytelling and meticulous attention to authenticity of detail and depth of charaterization has become one of the country's most widely read novelists
—— Sunday TimesFull-blooded, dramatic, exciting
—— ObserverOne of England's foremost historical novelists
—— Birmingham MailFilled with intrigue and secret plots...Vividly capturing life under the Tudors and giving us an insight into the hearts and minds of characters long dead, it is easy to see why Jean Plaidy is still regarded as the Queen of historical fiction.
—— Claire Gaskell , Cambrian News'A real delight to read...such a delicacy of touch...very funny...hugely enjoyable'
—— Margaret Forster'Very funny - and clever'
—— Daily Mirror'Be careful of this book ... it's reading-on-the-escalator stuff'
'An incisive tale of real feeling'
'Intelligent themes deftly delivered; bound to be a hit'
—— Elle magazine'I'd have been proud to have written this book as it manages loads of things most writers want to achieve - a clever, funny, sad story with a big heart and an even bigger brain' Jenny Eclair
—— Jenny Eclair, Glasgow HeraldFrom debates over the mysteries of genetics to footnotes on popular culture, Cadwalladr wears her intelligence so lightly, and with a tone so natural, it's hard to believe this is her first novel
—— Arts TelegraphCadwalladr also captures the desperation at the heart of most good comedy. She maintains the tragicomic balance to the end and has the confidence to chose the right, realistic ending over the wrong, romantic one
—— The Observer/ReviewA hilariously funny and moving chronical of three generations of the Monroe family told through the eyes of Rebecca in the 1970s. It is not just a habit of quoting proverbs and a recipe for sherry trifle that have passed down the maternal line. There's a habit of broken marriages, dubiously fathered children and untimely deaths.
—— EliteRebecca Monroe is really stumped when it comes to her family's behaviour. Why, on the day Charles and Camilla got married, did her mum lock herself in the loo and refuse to come out? Was it due to the collapse of her chocolate cake, or because Rebecca's grandmother ended up marrying her first cousin?
Pondering what it is that makes her clan click, Rebecca is determined to discover whether it is genes or fate that affects the different generations.
A fun little romp about the joys of family and the genes we inherit.
Touching and surprising...A moving account of the personal and social pressures that shape our childhood experiences and resonate throughout out lives
—— The Sunday TimesThis exciting first novel by a talented writer is a moving exploration of family life in the twenty-first century...You won't want to put this book down
—— My WeeklyHilariously funny and moving chronicle of three generations
—— Peterborough Evening News






