Behind the Scenes at the Museum

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