I liked this book much more than I had expected to. The story moves back and forth between the 1940s and the 1980s, telling the life of its central character, Penelope Keeling, and her relationships with her artist father, her husband and her wartime lover, and her adult children; she’s a sympathetic character who deals sensibly with life’s challenges and makes her dispositions accordingly. Two of the three children are almost, bit not quite, too awful to believe; and by the end of the story everyone gets their just reward. I guess I picked this up thanks to its appearance the BBC Big Read list – I would never have looked for it otherwise – and although I doubt I will delve much further into the ‘Aga saga’ sub-genre I rather enjoyed this excursion.