'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
