Molly Guinness

Family album

Fay Weldon’s new book is told by Frances, Weldon’s imaginary sister — one she would have had if her mother had not had a miscarriage a few years after Weldon was born.

issue 12 September 2009

Fay Weldon’s new book is told by Frances, Weldon’s imaginary sister — one she would have had if her mother had not had a miscarriage a few years after Weldon was born.

Fay Weldon’s new book is told by Frances, Weldon’s imaginary sister — one she would have had if her mother had not had a miscarriage a few years after Weldon was born. Frances steals a husband from Fay, becomes a successful novelist and finds herself in a changed world in 2013. Oh, and Frances is an unreliable narrator.

Eighty-year-old Frances starts writing the book as bailiffs pound on her door and she hides on the stairs with her grandson. As she looks back on 50 years in Chalcot Crescent, she analyses the motley family she has collected, and as she writes, events of national importance start unfolding in the room above her.

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