The Whalebone Theatre: The instant Sunday Times bestseller

Description

A brilliant, beguiling story of inheritance, imagination, courage and loss, and of an irrepressible girl from a gloriously dysfunctional home who fights to carve out her own story. Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor. But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and twelve-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently. With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid. But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story...

Joanna Quinn was born in London and grew up in Dorset, in the southwest of England, where her bestselling debut novel, The Whalebone Theatre, is set. Joanna has worked in journalism and the charity sector. She is also a short-story writer, published by The White Review and Comma Press, among others. She teaches creative writing and lives in a village near the sea in Dorset.

Destined to become a classic . . . Elegantly written and totally immersive, Quinn's debut is a wonder * Daily Mail * Quinn creates a world so rich with observation, detail, humanity and heart that you are incapable of doing anything but drinking it in with greedy delight * YOU magazine * In classic English Country House novel style, [The Whalebone Theatre] focuses on the younger generation amidst a backdrop of scandalous adult misbehaviour. This is a chunky novel to get lost in, full of pacy plotting and luscious language * The Independent * A crumbling old country manor, three unconventional siblings and the looming threat of war makes for a classic coming-of-age tale, as imaginative Cristabel, sweet Flossie and charismatic Digby attempt to find their roles in life. Brimful of charm, and wonderfully immersive, this is a captivating read * Daily Mail * I was swept away by this compelling, beautifully written debut and its plucky heroine * Good Housekeeping * One of those big chunky stories that swallows you whole - and it's beautifully written too * The Times * My book of the year. I adored this beautifully compulsive story with serious Cazalet vibes. Wild and wilful Cristabel was the perfect heroine as she and her siblings stage amateur theatricals in their big crumbling country house by the sea until the second world war shatters everything. The Whalebone Theatre will feel like a much-loved book even if you're reading it for the first time * Red Magazine, The 10 Best Books of 2022 * Written with heart and humour * Psychologies * [A] brilliant debut ... A truly immersive read. The plot unfolds gradually, allowing you to really connect with the characters, all of whom are very real with their fears and foibles ... Fascinating * Dorset Magazine * A pedigree stretching from Charles Dickens to Lemony Snicket ... What's remarkable, especially for a first novel, is her deft way of depicting this lost world - whether a subsiding seaside aristocracy or a training school for British agents or a Parisian theater in wartime - convincingly enough to let us see it simply as a setting for the unfolding drama. Her vision is so fine and fully realized that it's hard to imagine her doing anything else - and hard to have to wait to see what that might be * Washington Post * The Whalebone Theatre is absolute aces ... Quinn's imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold * New York Times * This is a book that will be loved unreasonably and life-long * Francis Spufford, author of 'Light Perpetual' * Utterly captivating ... Written with great heart, humour and humanity, it's the kind of book you want to escape normal life to read at every available opportunity. * Elizabeth Day, author of Magpie * The Whalebone Theatre has all the makings of a classic. And Cristabel Seagrave is the most gratifying hero. The war scenes often left me breathless: they are as good as you will ever read. A wonderful debut. Actually, a tour de force' * Sarah Winman, Author of Still Life * So immersive and joyous and glorious. I was completely entranced * Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Write It All Down * Quinn's story passes like a fabulous pageant, richly coloured and packed with incident, taking us from the lonely and unorthodox Dorset childhood of the extraordinary Christabel to the poignant aftermath of her heroic Second World War. Quinn has a sublime touch: Cristabel and her troupe are unforgettable, as riotous in comedy as they are heart-breaking in tragedy' * Frances Liardet, author of We Must Be Brave * Magnificent. As capacious, surprising and magical as the whale that lends its bones to Cristabel's theatre: a tale of intertwined lives and braided fates as deftly managed and heartbreaking as a Dickens' novel. * Rebecca Stott, Costa-winning author of The Days of Rain * Breathes fresh, bracing air into the lungs of the multi-generational saga - and the very form of the novel itself. Few people writing today can match Quinn for the energy and precision of her prose... * Susan Elderkin, author of The Story Cure: An A-Z of Books to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Wise * I defy any reader not to fall in love... it transported me wholesale to another time and place and while I wandered its pages, I forgot the world for a while * Wyl Menmuir, author of Fox Fires * Utterly heart-breaking and joyous ... I just disappeared into THE WHALEBONE THEATRE and didn't want to leave * Jo Baker, author of Longbourn * Quite simply brilliant ... The kind of story you sink into, getting totally wrapped up in the characters and their world ... The Whalebone Theatre is a book to treasure * Well Read with Anna Bonnet, My Favourite Books of 2022 * Far and away my favourite novel of the year ... A gorgeous book, following the lives of three half-siblings from the '20s and through World War II, the same canvas Kate Atkinson has used to such great effect. Love, grief and comedy in perfect balance: it's hard to believe that this accomplished novel comes from a first-timer * Mick Herron * Deservedly a surprise bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic ... Absorbing the best parts of Kate Atkinson, Evelyn Waugh and Elizabeth Jane Howard, this is a book to sink into and be propelled along by its brilliant storytelling. Few debuts have been as assured as this; Quinn is a frighteningly talented writer * The New European * Elegantly written and totally immersive. Helmed by fierce, imaginative Cristabel, it follows the fate and fortune of the three Seagrave siblings as they stage a theatrical production in their crumbling Dorset manor, and cope with the darkness of World War II and the long shadow it casts over their ramshackle, but golden, childhoods * Daily Mail, the best of the year's novels *