'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
