January Book GroupBook

The cover shows Emily Mortimer in the film version. In the book the heroine is much mousier. The book was short but somehow quite dense but informed by her own experiences of working in a Southwold bookshop. That episode ended with family evicted and their possessions set out on the pavement. Later all five were in a homeless shelterin one room on  bunk beds. I found the research for my introduction more interesting than her Booker nominated novel. This financially pinched life was despite being the daughter of the Bishop of London and the granddaughter of of bishops on both sides and the recipient of a congratulatory first from Oxford. The alcoholic Mr Fitzgerald didn’t help but they stayed together till his death.