Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson

In 1995 York born author Kate Atkinsons first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and Whitbread Book of the Year, while 1999 saw Waterstones choose it as one of the 99 greatest novels from the last 99 years. High praise indeed from an industry which is becoming harder for new talent to break into. So just what is it, contained within these 382 pages, that caught the imagination and hearts of these literary stalwarts? Behind the Scenes at the Museum portrays the life of Ruby Lennox, from her grudging conception in 1951, and early life in the city of York, to the solitude she finds on the Shetland Islands in her later ...  Read the complete review

Behind the Scenes at the Museum was Yorkshire mother of two, Kate Atkinson's first novel and this wonderful book it is definitely one to be celebrated. Kate Atkinson was born in York and she chose the old walled City as the location for the tale of teenage Ruby Lennox and her family. The book starts from the moment of Ruby's conception in 1951, a moment grudgingly obliged by her mother, Bunty. Ruby starts the tale as a growing foetus, a baby inside her mother's womb. Boy, it sure did start to get uncomfortable in there after nine months, there sure wasn't a lot of room. Ruby was pushed into the world while her father George was in the Dog and Hare in ...  Read the complete review

I think you only realise the true power of books when you read one that has such an effect on you that you feel like a part of you is missing when you finally finish it. Not 'unputdownable' as such (I hate that word but I'm at a loss for a better one so it will have to do) but a book where the characters really mean something to you and you actually care about what happens to them, where when the narrator stops talking you feel disappointed because there was so much more you wanted to know. 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' by Kate Atkinson was for me one of those books. (Sorry if you found that intro a bit much - but I am an English ...  Read the complete review

This is a bit of a peculiar review for me to write. I have given this review 4 stars out of 5, which is, I feel, a pretty good rating. However, for a while I did really struggle with reading this novel, as you can probably tell when I tell you that I started reading it back in September or October, and only just finished it yesterday, at the beginning of February. 4 months is an extremely long time to read a book, especially for me as I’ve developed a knack of whizzing through novels after recently completing a degree in English. All this would suggest a much lower rating for the novel than I have given it. However, while it is true that it took me a long time (3 months, ...  Read the complete review

“I exist! I am conceived…” thus starts the story of Ruby Lennox in Kate Atkinson’s first novel ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’. Kate Atkinson is a York born author who writes about places she knows and interweaves them in this novel. The story of Ruby Lennox is about the life of a young girl from her conception through to adulthood. The start of the story has Ruby in her mother’s womb aware of her mother’s feelings the joys and disappointments she feels. The story continues with the life of Ruby and her family as they live above the pet shop run by her family. Some thing happens to Ruby when she ...  Read the complete review