It should be at the top of the bestseller lists, for its subject, plot and its wonderful main character, Lily.
Set in the sixties, the story opens a few decades earlier with a description of Lily’s grandmother, Emma Preston, “M”, as a girl who grows into a malevolent woman, twisted in body and mind by a childhood bout with polio.
When her only son Jack marries sweet Lauren Rose, M disapproves, and sets out to destroy her daughter-in-law.
The fragmentation and frailty of her parents’ marriage is seen through Lily’s eyes as she, her older sister Mags and younger brother Artie are dragged around the world in the wake of Jack’s naval career. A brutal husband, scarred by his wartime experiences and psychologically damaged by his mother, he succeeds in driving away his wife.
But he can’t destroy Lily.