Centred in 1948 drab, down-at-heel London, four contrasting voices tell their overlapping stories: blonde, blue-eyed Queenie Bligh, her lacklustre husband, Bernard, and Jamaican immigrants, Gilbert Joseph and his wife whom he calls Miss Mucky Foot. It's funny, perceptive and moving in its handling of empire, racial prejudice, people's preconceptions, war and love. A real corker of a book and a deserving winner of so many awards.
*Winner of the 2004 Orange Prize and the 2004 Whitbread Best Novel Award and the 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year award
(Jenny Baker - bwl 28 February 2005 ) |
