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‘Vivid, poignant, hilarious and tragic: the most rewarding and beautiful novel I’ve read in ages’ BARBARA TRAPIDO

‘A family saga like no other. Gloriously off-beat, darkly comedic and totally bewitching. A bravura performance’ SARAH WINMAN

‘We shall be forgotten.’ he said. ‘We shall be lost. They will scrub us away like a set of dirty fingerprints on a plastic kettle.’

The crumbling Gothic mansion of Thornwalk, long-term home of the Gilbert family, is being handed over to a chain of luxury ‘historic’ hotels. Millions will be spent in its restoration. But for every so-called improvement, what will be lost? What value can there possibly be in a threadbare carpet, a tarnished spoon and a thousand empty jam jars?

Before the hotel people arrive, with their clipboards and their skips and their bottles of bleach, Maximus, loyal guardian of the Gilberts’ legacy, invites us on a final tour of the once-stately home, where each room holds a secret. From the bolt on the blue room door to the tiny dents in the bars at the nursery window … these are the keys that will unlock the lives of the five fatherless Gilbert children.

A frustrated romantic, a stubborn traditionalist, a dreamer, a diva and an explorer: The Infamous Gilberts will be cast adrift on the irresistible tides of the twentieth century, buoyed by love, buffeted by loss, and tangled together in an unputdownable story where the lines between eccentricity and madness, cruelty and love become hilariously, heartbreakingly blurred.

‘Completely captivating: I absolutely loved it. A compelling, ingenious, mischievous blend of tragedy, comedy and intrigue’ NINA STIBBE

Publisher Review

Vivid, poignant, infuriating, hilarious and tragic: the most rewarding and beautiful novel I’ve read in ages * Barbara Trapido * A family saga like no other. Gloriously off-beat, darkly comedic and totally bewitching. A bravura performance * Sarah Winman, author of Still Life * Completely captivating: I absolutely loved it. A compelling, ingenious, mischievous blend of tragedy, comedy and intrigue * Nina Stibbe * Eccentric and deliciously addictive … a gorgeous portrayal of a family caught in a privileged world that no longer exists * Rachel Joyce * Funny, and silly, and brilliantly crazy, and so poignant it made me cry. One of the best books – if not the best – I’ve read this year * Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground * Exquisite, unsettling and utterly unique * Jessica Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed * Dazzlingly original and told with wit, heart and humanity, it’s the kind of novel you cannot bear to put down until you know the fate of every character * Joanna Miller, author of The Eights * If Shirley Jackson moved The Addams Family to the English countryside, something like this dark, tongue-in-cheek epic might result… This distinctive debut introduces a wickedly weird new talent * Kirkus Review *