Shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and "The Sunday Express" Book of the Year Award, this is a comic and bawdy tale of the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families. It is populated with sets of twins and mistaken identities, and spans more than a century of showbusiness.

Received today - thank you for letting me borrow this. I will read it and return after my book group meeting.

When I first opened this, I thought I had read it before as the characters seemed very familiar, but I can't remember the story, so can only assume I never finished it!

I enjoyed it this time round, but found the writing style quite difficult to follow. The chronology seemed to jump about a lot which meant I was continuosly checking where I was!

Overall, a fun, if slightly implausible story.

Thank you for this - I will return it shortly.

Back home safe - with a few added extras! You didn't need to do that! It was really sweet of you, thanks :)