Telling Liddy

by Anne Fine

A lively funny novel that will make you wince with delight, and recoil in horror; a fine read. (fic)

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Though readers often find themselves inadvertently laughing aloud as they read Anne Fine's novels, as she herself admits, "a lot of my work, even for fairly young readers, raises serious social issues. Growing up is a long and confusing business. I try to show that the battle through the chaos is worthwhile and can, at times, be seen as very funny." In 1994, this unique combination of humour and realism inspired the hit movie MRS. DOUBTFIRE, based on Anne's novel MADAME DOUBTFIRE and starring the late comedic genius Robin Williams.

Anne is best known in her home country, England, as a writer principally for children, but over the years she has also written eight novels for adult readers. Seven of these she describes as black - or sour - comedies, and the first, THE KILLJOY, simply as "dead black". These novels have proved great favourites with reading groups, causing readers to squirm with mingled horror and delight as she peels away the layers in all too familiar family relationships, exposing the tangled threads and conflicts beneath. (It's perhaps not surprising that Anne has openly expressed astonishment at the fact that murder in the domestic setting is not even more common.)

Anne has written more than sixty books for children and young people. Amongst numerous other awards, she is twice winner of both the Carnegie Medal, Britain's most prestigious children's book award, and the Whitbread Award. Twice chosen as Children's Author of the Year in the British Book Awards, Anne Fine was also the first novelist to be honoured as Children's Laureate in the United Kingdom. In 2003, Anne became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Her work has been translated into forty five languages.

Anne Fine lives in the north of England and has two grown up daughters.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading this and thought no family could be this enmeshed but then I read a post on Mumsnet which made me realise that yes, some families have these claustrophobic relationships.

I thought the arc of the story was improbable - I don't see how Bridie came to the conclusion that she did during the intervention by her work colleagues. In my view that was completely unlikely, even out of the realm of being an inspired guess.

The four sisters were each in their own way deeply unpleasant people just using each other. I wouldn't like to know any of them.

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive and slow

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read. Quite amusing but the whole family argument went on a bit long. I was disappointed with the end - that Bridie stopped so low to give a cruel wedding present to Liddy and George that could ruin their lives. Her banishment by Liddy months before had eventually had a positive influence on Bridies life yet she allowed revenge to take over and as a result lost the love of her husband that had recently been rekindled. It was a sad ending and not in a good way.
However it was an entertaining read and was well written so I will be interested to read more of Anne Fine.

[Bunny Cavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow start but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. The exploration of what changes people was great. It lost the 5th star because of the first few chapters. They don't quite work and make stodgy reading