The Whalebone Theatre
The instant Sunday Times bestseller
-
-
4.4 • 131 Ratings
-
-
- £0.99
-
- £0.99
Publisher Description
'A tour de force' Sarah Winman, author of Still Life
This is the story of an old English manor house by the sea, with crumbling chimneys, draping ivy and a library full of dusty hardbacks. It's the story of the three children who grow up there, and the adventures they create for themselves while the grown-ups entertain endless party guests.
This is the story of a whale that washes up on a beach, whose bones are claimed by a twelve-year-old girl with big ambitions and an even bigger imagination. An unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, fiercely determined to do things differently.
But as the children grow to adulthood, another story has been unfolding in the wings. And when the war finally takes centre stage, they find themselves cast, unrehearsed, into roles they never expected to play.
They raised themselves on stories. Now it's time for them to write their own...
'One of those big chunky stories that swallows you whole' The Times
'Beautifully compulsive ... The Whalebone Theatre will feel like a much-loved book even if you're reading it for the first time' Red Magazine
'Pure heaven, from first word to last' Sunday Times
Instant Sunday Times bestseller, September 2023
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The emotional upheaval of the interwar years in England is dramatized afresh in Quinn's dazzling and imaginative debut. Cristabel Seagrave's mother dies in childbirth, and Cristabel's father, Jasper, who remarries when she is three, dies soon after. This leaves Cristabel to be raised by her disinterested stepmother, Rosalind, who then marries Cristabel's aviation-obsessed uncle Willoughby, Jasper's brother. In 1928, when Cristabel is 12, she discovers a dead whale washed up on the beach adjoining the decaying Seagrave estate. She turns the whale's rib cage into the proscenium for a theatre, where she ambitiously stages The Iliad and The Tempest with the help of her half sister Flossie, cousin Digby, loyal kitchen maid Maudie Kitkat, and Taras Kovalsky, a Russian artist. Fourteen years later, Cristabel and Digby's experiences at playacting will come in handy when they are both parachuted into France on separate espionage missions to help the Resistance during WWII. But will they survive to see the renaissance of the Whalebone Theatre? Thorny, idiosyncratic Cristabel is a formidable first among equals in this expansive cast of memorable eccentrics. Peacetime whimsy gracefully segues into scenes of unbearable tension and heart-wrenching suspense as Cristabel boldly infiltrates Paris on the eve of its liberation. Combining elements of I Capture the Castle, Brideshead Revisited, and Charlotte Gray, this is a reading experience to be long cherished.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
A great read. Funny, sad engrossing. A wonderful saga of love, war, loss and much much more.
A sumptuous read
An extraordinary story encompassing an exceptional range of characters as they process across a vividly drawn stage. It is long and wide-ranging but well worth the read, almost two books in one: the pre-war tale and its wartime sequel. Surely a tv series in waiting?
A memorable, absorbing read!
The Whalebone Theatre is nothing short of brilliant! Wonderfully observed characters, and a fascinating story. The descriptions of the Dorset countryside are beautifully written and so evocative. I particularly liked the way Joanna Quinn used devices such as letters, diaries and newspaper cuttings, to move the action along without pages of dialogue. Her descriptions of the grief felt by her characters was so graphic and incredibly moving. A wonderful book!