Review
'beautifully written,..the characters are entertaining, touching and funny and the years covered by the books are portrayed in vivid and convincing detail' -- Chidlren's Books in Ireland 25 "Anderson...handles difficult situations with tact and humour and produces strong, believable characters.' -- The Glasgow Herald, 30th July 1999 'Funny, with a melancholy edge ... There are two more books in the series to come. I shall read them avidly'. -- The Guardian, 2nd October 1999 'an unmissable funny/ sad study of hope and loss' -- Sunday Times, 3rd October 1999 THE WAR ORPHAN 'a rare and truthful book' -- Books for your children BLACKTHORN, WHITETHORN '... there's a personal, original vision here ... involving and impressive' -- Philip Pullman, The Guardian 'beautifully written,..the characters are entertaining, touching and funny and the years covered by the books are portrayed in vivid and convincing detail' -- Chidlren's Books in Ireland 25 "Anderson...handles difficult situations with tact and humour and produces strong, believable charcters.' -- The Glasgow Herald, 30th July 1999 'Funny, with a melancholy edge ... There are two more books in the series to come. I shall read them avidly'. -- The Guardian, 2nd October 1999 'an unmissable funny/ sad study of hope and loss' -- Sunday Times, 3rd October 1999 THE WAR ORPHAN 'a rare and truthful book' -- Books for your children BLACKTHORN, WHITETHORN '... there's a personal, original vision here ... involving and impressive' -- Philip Pullman, The Guardian
Product Description
It is the late 1950s: teenagers have barely begun to be invented. Ruth and her older sister Mary struggle with the chaos of their parents' attempts to support five children by renting a rambling country house and running it as a holiday home for children of the rich. When their father dies, their increasingly desperate mother turns her efforts to the two hapless girls. Eager to marry them off, she plunges them into dancing classes and presentation at Buckingham Palace as phoney under-age debs. Instead Mary finds LIFE at art school in a nearby town, with beatniks, jazz poets and dancing in the river. When friends persuade their mother to take the family to a new start in London, Ruth finds that she, too, has other life-plans ...
