But there are small gaps in the narrative, hints of something amiss. Interwoven with Ruby’s story is that of her great-grandmother, her grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins as they struggle through two world wars. Theirs is a story of humdrum family life in the ‘50s – endless housework, minor peccadilloes on the part of Ruby’s father, homework, weddings and funerals. Ruby and her family live above their pet shop in the shadow of York Minster. It sold and sold.īehind the Scenes at the Museum is the story of Ruby Lennox told in her own voice from the moment of her conception, heralded by a few grunts and groans from her father while her mother feigns sleep. I was a bookseller at the time, handed a proof by my Transworld rep who promised it would be the next big thing, hardly an infrequent occurrence but he proved to be spot on. Hard to imagine a time when Kate Atkinson wasn’t a literary household name, albeit one seemingly doomed not to win another literary prize after bagging both the Whitbread First Novel and Book of the Year Awards with Behind the Scenes at the Museum. This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could.
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