Declan Burke Kennedy's story of two boys growing up in a small town in the Midlands during the 1960s shows a fine awareness of the nuances of speech, dress and behaviour which marked "the gentry" - from those on the rougher side of the tracks, and the eponymous heroine is a memorable creation - warm, wry, wise - though, in the end, perhaps a little too self effacing and noble for her own good. The novel's most successful passages, a series of nostalgic summer scenes drawn in soft pastels - the haymaking, the tennis match, the courting couple - unfold against a soundtrack of Neil Sedaka, Fats Domino and the Beatles.
