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Painting Ruby Tuesday
Painting Ruby Tuesday
Jan 16, 2026 3:06 PM

Author:Jane Yardley

Painting Ruby Tuesday

It is the summer of 1965. Annie Cradock, the only child of exacting parents who run the village school, is an imaginative girl with a head full of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Annie whiles away the school holiday with her friends: Ollie the rag-and-bone man (and more importantly his dog); the beautiful piano-playing Mrs Clitheroe who turns Beethoven into boogie-woogie (and like Annie sees music in colour); and Annie's best friend Babette - streetwise, loyal, and Annie's one solid link with common sense. But everything changes when the village is rocked by a series of murders and the girls know something they've no intention of telling the police.

In the present day, adult Annie is a successful singing coach in a stifling marriage. Her ambitious American husband, impatient with his quirky wife, is taking a job in New York - but is she staying with him? As Annie struggles with her future, she first has to come to terms with the bizarre events of 1965.

Reviews

'Bright, engaging and very funny'

—— Guardian

'A compelling read'

—— Company

'Highly original...told with humour and poignancy by a hugely likeable heroine...An entertaining and compelling read filled with rounded, memorable characters, and both darkly funny and moving'

—— Time Out

'Painting Ruby Tuesday is indeed a comic novel, but one which is elevated by the music which flows through it, and the unusual and original descriptions'

—— The Scotsman

I loved it...I thought it was wonderfully blackly comic in that uniquely English way...interlaced with an understanding of how fragile modern relationships can be

—— Isla Dewar author of , Giving Up on the Ordinary

Great fun.

—— Fiona Maddocks , Guardian

Sensational… it is unlike not only anything you may have read by Rushdie but by anyone anywhere.

—— Sathnam Sanghera , The Times

The dark delights that spring from his imagination in this novel have a spellbinding energy that has marked the greatest storytellers since the days for Scheherazade.

—— Erica Wagner , Observer

Rushdie writes with a happy exuberance.

—— Allan Massie , Scotman

Vividly described and rich in mayhem.

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

Using fantasy as the “other”, Rushdie shows how swiftly local fears can swell into pandemonium in a future that isn’t so far away.

—— Jessica Calderon , Nylon

This profound and funny novel thrives on unresolved tensions between reality and magic, fact and fiction, philosophy and religion.

—— Declan Burke , Irish Examiner

Rich, bejeweled narrative.

—— Monocle

A glittering kaleidoscope of stories which creates a dazzling whole.

—— Gareth Watkins, four stars , Stylist

Rushdie is a generous, good-natured writer who’d rather woo and seduce his readers than reduce the truth to gall and brimstone and make them swallow it.

—— Ursula K Le Guin , Guardian

Fans should be satisfied and newcomers bemused, then enchanted, by the wordsmithery on show.

—— Manchester Evening News

Two Years, Eight Months And Twenty-Eight Nights blends Arabian myth, history and sci-fi into a whirlwind of a fable.

—— Joanne Finney , Good Housekeeping

A mesmerizing modern tale about worlds dangerously colliding, the monsters that are unleashed when reason recedes, and a beautiful testament to the power of love and humanity in chaotic times.

—— Kevin McGough , The Fix

A festive treat… I know it will bring light, warmth and humour along with a playful understanding of the vagaries of human nature.

—— Mariella Frostrup , Observer

A joyous, fractured fairytale with a cast of thousands and a darkly glittering heart.

—— Alex Preston , Observer

Will no doubt be read for generations to come.

—— Rohan Silva , Evening Standard

Salman Rushdie described a battle between Islamic jinn for a 21st-century Earth.

—— Tim Martin , Daily Telegraph

An energetic return to form pitting reason against religious zeal

—— Justine Jordan , Guardian

Magic realism squared […] the most madcap fun you’re likely to have in a book this year.

—— Olaf Tyaransen , Hot Press

I love, love, love the Rushdie – I think it’s my favourite of his… The fantasy elements are just magical and, of course, it’s gorgeously written.

—— Marianne Faithfull , Observer

An apocalyptic battle between reason and unreason, good and evil, light and darkness, with all the bells and whistles of a Hollywood blockbuster.

—— Carlos Fraenkel , London Review of Books

Not only a beautifully written satire-as-fairytale but the subject matter is bang on trend… That Rushdie should still be writing so potently and still be continuing to push back the frontiers, when he could easily pull up a deck chair and languish on the frontiers he already owns is wonderful, inspirational and profoundly (but only in the best way) terrifying… 10/10, Master.

—— Starburst Magazine

Ambitious, smart and dark fable that is full of rich and profound notions about human nature.

—— Katherine McLaughlin , SciFi Now

I like to think how many readers are going to admire the courage of this book, revel in its fierce colours, its boisterousness, humour and tremendous pizzazz, and take delight in its generosity of spirit.

—— Ursula K Le Guin , Guardian

Winterson is on sparkling form in this highly intelligent and daringly imaginative reworking of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale... Witty, clever and bold.

—— Mail on Sunday

Winterson is incapable of being dull, and The Gap Of Time is a fitting addition to her uniquely inventive catalogue.

—— Ellis O'Harrison , Irish Independent

She deftly captures all the magic and raw emotion of the original.

—— Irish Times
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