As a young girl, Rosamond is sent to Shropshire to escape the Blitz.
Here, in the countryside, she forms a close bond with her older cousin,
Beatrix, a young woman haunted by anger and resentment.
Sixty years later, just before her death, Rosamond records her memories
on cassettes, addressing them to a distant cousin--a near stranger-named
Imogen. As Gill, her beloved niece, listens to these tapes, a
heart--stopping family saga is revealed. In this masterful portrait of
three generations of woman, Jonathan Coe exposes the profound reserves
of hope and loss within the lives of ordinary woman.