Claire Skinner

"A funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink--who finally pushes back. Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled--the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she's really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away. Grace sets off across...

Madge Arwell and her kids escape war-torn London to a house in Dorset where a young caretaker who calls himself The Doctor is keeping house, sort of. Madge doesn't want to ruin Christmas for Lily and Cyril by telling them that their father may have been lost in an air fight over the English Channel. The Doctor gives the Arwells a mysterious gift that leads them into a magical world where they family has to be brave for their wishes to come true.

An amusing portrait of a working-class family in a suburb just north of London, an irrepressible mum and dad and their night-and-day twins, a bookish good girl and a sneering lay about. A vivid, lived-in story of ordinary existence, in which even modest dreams (such as the father's desire to open a food truck) carry enormous weight. Perched on the line between humor and melancholy.