This is very special.  Even with all she has written since and with her change of direction into crime mysteries this, her first novel, in my mind still stands out as her best.  It is simply just the life of Ruby and her dysfunctional family.  It’s warm, addictive, quite wonderful – and quite unlike anything else she has written.

A "Piece of Passion" from the publisher...

‘I have a vivid memory of the first time I read the first page of Kate Atkinson’s first novel. It was nearly 10 years after I’d left York and in a page I was back there, in the streets around the Minster – transported by the voice of an unborn child to a world that was familiar but warped. Never mind its unusual developmental stage, the voice was immediately distinct, a little mad, a little caustic, and yet brilliantly true and completely hilarious. It was delicious. Behind the Scenes at the Museum is in a class of its own. The odd structure, tone, cast of characters all made it unique, exciting , a bit disturbing and utterly captivating. It made me laugh and it made me cry. I think it is a masterpiece.' Susanna Wadeson,  Publishing Director at Transworld

Synopsis

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster, with sensible and sardonic Patrica aged five, greedy cross-patch Gillian who refused to be ignored, and Ruby...Ruby tells the story of The Family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life.

Reviews

Ruby, the narrator, tells us about her Yorkshire childhood, starting within her mother's birth canal, waiting to be born. Interwoven into her childhood - full of bizarre events, as seen by Ruby (but probably nobody else) - are historical 'footnote sections about Ruby's forebears, which work beautifully. Ruby's delivery is fast and furious, an overflowing cornucopia of stories, characters, dramatic events and adolescent angst - funny, vivid, original, with a neat surprise tucked into the end. Winner of the 1995 Whitbread Prize. (Kirkus UK)'

About the Author

Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News? was voted winner of the Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who also makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog. She won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize for her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since. Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation