Behind The Scenes At The Museum

Kate Atkinson

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Paperback

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English

Black Swan
01 April 1996

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

To celebrate the 25th anniversary since first publication, a new edition of Kate Atkinson's brilliant and unforgettable first novel with an introduction by the author.

The unforgettable, award-winning debut novel and modern classic from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Life After Life and Shrines of Gaiety.

'Delivers its jokes and its tragedies as efficiently as Dickens...outrageously funny...will dazzle readers for years to come' - HILARY MANTEL, bestselling author of Wolf Hall

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 her children - sensible and sardonic Patricia aged five, greedy cross-patch Gillian who refused to be ignored, and Ruby...

In Behind the Scenes at the Museum, young Ruby tells the story of 'The Family', from the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life.

Praise for Behind the Scenes at the Museum, winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year-

'An astounding book...without doubt one of the finest novels I have read for years' The Times

'Little short of a masterpiece...

Fizzing with wit and energy, Kate Atkinson's hilarious novel made me laugh and cry' Daily Mail

'A really gripping, emotionally satisfying family saga written with warmth and wit. I've re-read it countless times.' Red

'A debut novel of astonishing confidence and skill...

Acutely observant, overflowing with good jokes, it is the work of an author who loves her characters and sets them playing with gleeful energy' Spectator

'Written so fluently and wittily that I sailed through it as though blown by an exhilarating wind... It lifted my spirits enormously. I loved it.' Margaret Forster

By: Kate Atkinson
Imprint: Black Swan
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 343g
ISBN: 9780552996181
ISBN 10: 0552996181
Pages: 496
Publication Date: 01 April 1996
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and has been a critically acclaimed international author ever since. Her bestselling novels featuring the former police detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog, have been adapted into a successful BBC TV series starring Jason Isaacs. She was appointed MBE in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Reviews for Behind The Scenes At The Museum

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)