Breathtaking work that's likely to be remembered for years to come

This mesmerising story creates a living past of battle feats, betrayals, heartbreaking loyalties and cruelties

A meticulously detailed book with a fascinating plot

Full of imaginative invention, adventure and compelling descriptive prose, reminiscent of Dorothy Dunnett's writing. The best book I have read in a long time

Manda Scott writes with rich imagination and brilliantly reconstructs history before your eyes

Story telling as it should be, edge of the seat, with vivid characterisations but within a thoughtful, spiritual context

Literate chick-lit ... Jayne Buxton is a funny writer who knows that humour is in the detail

This is one that you won't want to miss - a wonderful debut novel

Intelligent chick-lit ... This laugh-out-loud debut will captivate readers

This debut novel is a fresh, thoroughly enjoyable read

Wonderfully comic and touching

Interweaves a variety of thoroughly imagined life stories and predicaments with quiet, effective skill

I have greater admiration for Margaret Forster than for most novelists. A very fine, continuously interesting, and often moving work, all the better because it is so firmly rooted in the ordinary world of everyday experience

Cadwalladr 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

A 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.

Rebecca 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

This 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

Hilariously funny and moving chronicle of three generations