Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

I make no apologies for including this wonderful book. I know that few of you are likely to pick it up and read it in your lifetime at school, but there are those among you who have already bitten the bullet of adult fiction. There are some great novels in the Extended Reader section of the LRC - this one amongst them. Go on - challenge your prejudices!

Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a triumph: an often hilarious and sprawling account of one Yorkshire family told in a fragmented, hugely accessible style by newest addition, Ruby. It is an ambitious novel - one which traces a line from the last hurrah of Empire through to the dog days of the 20th century - but it is so easy to read that the pages just fly by. Peopled with a huge, shifting cast of characters, the narrative leaps backwards and forwards in time with breakneck abandon, and Atkinson manages that most difficult of balancing acts namely the one between laughter and tragedy (the retelling of 'The Great Pet Shop Fire' being a case in point). The book is so rich and inventive that I was genuinely put out when I finished the final page.

I know we set up this blog to push reading and trust me, I'll get onto some children's books again soon. Meanwhile, if you do get round to reading this one and enjoy it, try Andrea Levy's Small Island or Pat Barker's The Ghost Road. The same writer has also written a hugely entertaining crime novel called Case Studies.

Mr Mudd