Gorgeous . . . Delightful . . . Absolute aces . . . Reading it is like plunging into a tub of clotted cream while (or whilst) enrobed in silk eau-de-Nil beach pajamas . . . Quinn’s imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold, boding more commanding work to come.” — TheNew York Times However, Quinn never pushes the idea far enough to make the reader catch her breath – and that’s the weakness of the novel, which despite its engaging storytelling cannot match the likes of models such as Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles or Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. Quinn simply doesn’t take enough risks. She has her characters narrate in turn, which means they have no secrets from us; she makes them likable, with few hidden resentments or schemes. The older generation don’t alter as they age, dropping out of the narrative as they cease to be interesting. The younger ones are better treated in that they mature and undergo life-altering challenges; but the main driver of tension in their story comes from historical events. Wow! Some of my book club friends were finding this book boring, so I approached it with trepidation. I needn’t have. I loved every moment of this dreamily-written book. This book is possibly one of the most atmospheric I've read in a long time. It is beautifully written. The prose is LYRICAL. But if you expect to read it in a weekend, you're going to find it impossible for three reasons. I don’t think they’d care. If you were good, and I know you would be, they wouldn’t even notice you were a woman.’

This is the story of an old English manor house by the sea, with crumbling chimneys, draping ivy and a library full of dusty books. It’s the story of the three children who grow up there, and the adventuresThis is the story of a whale that washes up on a beach, whose bones are claimed by a twelve-year-old girl with big ambitions and an even bigger imagination. An unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, fiercely determined to do things differently. How do the pressures of inheritance affect the Seagrave men differently --- from Jasper to Willoughby to Digby? What is inherited, and by whom, by the end of the war, regardless of gender? Playful, inventive, sharp, funny, The Whalebone Theatre offers the sort of reading experience that is remarkably rare, even for those of us whose happiest hours are spent with books: sheer, undiluted delight from start to finish . . . It breathes fresh, bracing air into the lungs of the multi-generational saga—and the very form of the novel itself . . . Most importantly of all, perhaps, Quinn gives us Cristabel, the sort of intelligent heroine that has been sorely missing from every other classic since Middlemarch . . . It’s impossible not to be charmed by this book.” —Susan Elderkin, author of Voices

The arrival of the whalebones at Chilcombe is an event in and of itself. What is the significance of taking something that technically “belongs to the king” (197)? Did the transformation of the theatre into a garden during the war actually change anything about what the theatre is being used for by the family? The Whalebone Theatre has all the makings of a classic. And Cristabel Seagrave is the most gratifying hero. The war scenes often left me breathless: they are as good as you will ever read . . . A tour de force.” —Sarah Winman, author of Still Life The story follows the oddly structured Seagrave family, genteel aristocrats with a slowly failing estate and a brood of loosely related siblings who will inherit this mess and have to figure it out. But before they even get a chance to do that, WWII happens and will send them in unexpected directions.Cristabel Seagrave and her half/step-siblings, Flossie and Digby, are largely left to bring themselves up during the inter-war years in a country house in Dorset. Tales of adventure fire their imagination, and when a whale is beached near their home, Cristabel claims it for herself and eventually converts its bones into an outdoor theatre. But as WWII approaches, it becomes clear that none of the trio is comfortable in their allocated role and that war might provide opportunities to forge new identities—as long as they can survive. Reviewers might call this novel 'sweeping': the war-time postcards, letters and diaries are effective, intensely moving, as vigorous and energetic as Cristabel, Flossie, and Digby’s dialogue elsewhere, if not more forcefully so. They sail the reader through action at such a snappy pace. It’s astonishing to discover that this beguiling story is Joanna Quinn’s first novel . . . If you loved Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet series and Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle you’ll absolutely adore this. It’s touching, enthralling, and superbly written—an extraordinary book that deserves to be read and re-read.” — Independent, #1 Best Overall of “10 Best Books to Read This Summer” As exciting as ”The Whalebone Theatre” might sound, this one doesn’t really deliver. It tells a story about a British upper-class family during the WW2. There’s love, loss, spies, war, and of course a whale.

I find myself unable to critique the last few acts of the novel, because they are so absorbing that I abandoned my critical reader and surrendered to wholehearted emotional entanglement with the novel and the characters. I also feel that I can't say too much about the penultimate acts because I'd be giving away (even the smallest) secrets that need to be lived through as they are read, with immediacy. I will say that, having finished the novel just this moment, I am simultaneously wrung out and filled up. What a lovely read. I have seen it compared to Life After Life which is a very high bar, but it covers a similar period and has a similar feel. It's about three half-siblings growing up in a country estate in the 1920s and 30s. Christabel, Flossie and Digby have a passion for performance and put on annual plays for the neighbourhood in a theatre on their grounds. When WW2 breaks out they all get involved in different ways. Christabel ends up being parachuted into France to undertake clandestine work. There was another peculiar thought that niggled at Cristabel: none of them knew her. None of them knew her name. Even the guard on the train didn’t know her name, and she had rather expected he might. Rosalind enters Chilcombe as a veritable outsider --- upon her arrival on the first day of 1920, we learn that “Rosalind feels pinned beneath the sheets of the marital bed.... She is fixed in place. An exhibit.... Jasper believes she will become familiar with her marital duties in time. She will become familiar with the unfamiliar” (11). How does the establishment of the Whalebone Theatre integrate her in the family in a new, even unexpected way? What do you think would have been different about how the family and estate went through the war had she not died?

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What’s remarkable, especially for a first novel, is Quinn’s deft way of depicting this lost world—whether a subsiding seaside aristocracy or a training school for British agents or a Parisian theater in wartime . . . Her vision is so fine and fully realized that it’s hard to imagine her doing anything else—and hard to have to wait to see what that might be.” — Washington Post It's a long book, which isn't a problem unless you have a pile of books to read and you don't want to feel the pressure to finish this one. Because THIS is a book you want to take your time with, you want to allow yourself to fall in love with it. It's a big story that covers years.

His presence in her life like a dog sleeping on the end of your bed: a loyalty so fond and constant, you only notice it on the rare occasions when you wake up and it’s gone, and then all you want to do is get up and find it, so you can go outside and play. rating. The title of this book and where it comes from in the story was the intriguing story line for me. That’s because I loved the character of twelve-year-old Christobel Seagrave, an odd and quirky but intuitive girl. When a whale washes up on the beach near to Chilcombe Estate in Dorset 1920’s Christobel plants a flag and claims it as her own, fighting off the idea it belongs to England. With her half siblings Flossie and Digby, they spend their time, creating their own plays and stories. The bones of the whale literally become their theatre, a place where they can dress up and become other people. Soon they are somewhat of a sensation as they present plays for their hamlet to great applause. During the war, Cristabel and Digby take on personas that are necessary for them to stay alive, and to keep others alive. What satisfaction, and risk, do they derive from doing so? How do they continue to reinvent themselves after the war, even beyond life? Why do you think the novel is broken into “Acts” as a structural device? How do the novel’s events map onto the typical five-part structure of a Shakespeare play? Far and away my favourite novel of the year . . . It’s a gorgeous book, following the lives of three half-siblings from the ‘20s and through World War II, the same canvas Kate Atkinson has used to such great effect. Love, grief, and comedy in perfect balance: it’s hard to believe that this accomplished novel comes from a first-timer.”A dysfunctional, rather unusual family. A large home on the coast. A whale washed up and turned into a theatre. A large cast of characters. A generational saga that takes the reader through the years between the wars, into World War Two and beyond.