{"product_id":"canvey-island","title":"Canvey Island","description":"\u003cb\u003e_______________\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘Runcie has captured the truth about love ... he is the simple chronicler of English post-war life, using irony and understatement to lay bare the pathos of ordinary lives ... Beautifully done' \u003c\/b\u003e- \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘A tender, intimate account of post-war England which left me both wistful and elated ... So engaging, so well-shaped and so unsparingly, generously truthful'\u003c\/b\u003e - Jim Crace\n\u003cb\u003e_______________\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003eA moving family saga and wonderfully rich portrait of post-war Britain \u003c\/b\u003e\n\nIt is 1953 in Canvey Island. Len and Violet are at a dance. Violet's husband George sits and watches them sway and glide across the dance floor, his mind far away, trapped by a war that ended nearly ten years ago. Meanwhile, at home, a storm rages and Len's wife Lily and his young son Martin fight for their lives in the raging black torrent. The night ends in a tragedy that will reverberate through their lives. \n\nThis poignant novel follows the family's fortunes from the austerity of the post-war years to Churchill's funeral, from Greenham Common to the onset of Thatcherism and beyond, eloquently capturing the very essence of a transforming England in the decades after the war. It is a triumph of understated emotion, a novel about growing up and growing old, about love, hope and reconciliation. \n\u003cb\u003e_______________\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘Runcie's third novel is a funny, epic, moving story of Thameside folk ... a beautifully observed, tragi-comic work'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e- What’s On\u003c\/i\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘Runcie writes with an excellent feeling for time and place, and, above all, the intensity of ordinary lives'\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e- Choice\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54225457611096,"sku":"9780747585831","price":13.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780747585831.jpg?v=1764792927","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/canvey-island","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}