O Caledonia

'I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named O Caledonia as her favourite book' Maggie O'Farrell 'A sparky, funny work of genius' Ali Smith'The reader feels unalloyed joy on every page' IndependentAt the bottom of a great stone staircase, dressed in her mother's black lace evening dress, twisted in murderous death, lies Janet. So end the sixteen years of Janet's short life. A life spent in a draughty Scottish castle, where roses will not grow, and a jackdaw decides to live in the doll's house. A life peopled by prettier, smoother-haired siblings, a Nanny with a face like the North Sea and the peculiar, whisky-swigging Cousin Lila. A life where Janet is perpetually misunderstood - and must turn from people, to animals, to books, to her own wild and wonderful imagination. A W&N Essential with an introduction by Maggie O'Farrell'Funny, surprising, exquisitely written and brilliant on the smelly, absurd, harsh business of growing up' David Nicholls'A wonderful oddity - brief, vivid, eccentric, written with ferocious zest and black humour' Penelope LivelyReaders love this classic:'Macabre, funny and sad. Beautifully written' ?????'Dizzying heights and depths of despair' ?????'Poetically written ... I will read it over and over' ?????'Poetic, magical, disturbing ... and comforting' ?????'I am so happy that I chanced across this book, whilst simultaneously being devastated that I have only just discovered it' ?????