Mary has raised her daughters in this house. Watched them play and fight and grow up in this house. Today it is the house where she will get married.

Captures the ebb and flow of family dynamics in Chekhovian detail . . . makes you want to call out, wait for me! as the end approaches and the characters depart -- Susannah Wise Subtle, intelligent, and so deeply moving…people who just feel so achingly real. Extraordinary’ – A.J. West

Archives

Feels like the ultimate eavesdropping exercise, it's satisfying fresh and expertly structured. The penultimate chapter will make you shriek. I loved it.' ALEXANDRA HEMINSLEY This is like a latter day Mary Wesley read with its incisive observations. I loved it. It is a beautifully written book. Sometimes a book doesn’t need to shout to make an impact. This Family is one of those books – it’s quiet, unassuming and yet it stays in your mind once it’s finished. Messy, complicated joyful characters and relationships that sneak into your heart and make you care … a bittersweet, deftly woven, captivating portrayal of a mother and daughters.’ JENNIFER SAINT Unfolds like a great piece of theatre... The more I read, the harder it became to put down.' BOBBY PALMER

How will it all play out? Will we find out how these sisters, that we will come to care so much about, fell apart so completely? Will they be able to restrain themselves for just one day? Will Mary get harmony for her wedding day? Only when the comforts and complications of her old existence are gone, does Ruth finally realise how she might be able to live to the fullest. Doesn’t she deserve to get married in a peaceful environment rather than endure hostility, recrimination or rejection between her offspring? As this troubled family saga unfolds, her hopes seem unlikely to come to fruition. An ambitious new novel of family life past and present from the author of the Costa Book Awards shortlisted THE STRANDINGDystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures We all have a very different type of family, but in this book we get a glimpse into someone else’s and see that actually we’re all more similar than we realise. Subtle, intelligent, and so deeply moving ... people who just feel so achingly real. Extraordinary." - A J West Laura also writes Young Adult fiction and today we are discussing her latest novel Sisters of Sword and Shadow and why she's so passionate about writing for young people, the incredible power of storytelling and why activism needs fiction as well as non-fiction. The last chapter or so was nicely done, and there are some really lovely passages throughout the book, but the characters were all a bit bland and I couldn’t say that any of them interested me enough to care. This type of story has been done many times before, and whilst this wasn’t a bad offering, it certainly didn’t excite me.