Overview
When it comes to memoir, Miranda Miller is an incorrigible novelist. Viola, three years old in 1953 when guests gather in her parents'' London home to watch the Queen''s coronation on TV, is not Miranda. Yet character and author share the same age, the same home, the same parents and three brothers, the same friends and fears and love of books and breathless adventures in her native city.
When I Was brings all the family members center stage, each character opening their consciousness to reveal a multi-faceted study as life presses in on a family''s hopes and dreams.
The novel whisks us through 1950s London, in a tale as true as a novelist can make it. The twists of its drama, as a young girl forges her way into being, let you into secrets of resilience and love.
A 'Writer's Review' BOOK OF THE YEAR - "Engaging, perceptive and compassionate, this is a novel that’s hard to put down."1953. Viola is three. The young Queen ofEngland is being crowned on a television in the corner of the room. Tubby littleViola gazes out at the party guests in this fancy London house, already alertto human drama. This is a genteel family in gentle crisisas they have to move from a large house to a tiny flat. Viola’s Anglo-Indianmother hoped for much more from life, while her father gets involved inghosting the memoir of a chorus girl who married a millionaire. Viola burrowsinto the adventures of storybooks and battles her three older brothers forattention. A decade passes, and Viola finds friendship and danger among the oldand the young. 1950s London with its bomb sites, air raid shelters andattitudes to gender, race, class and sex is vividly present. When I Was providesa delicious, memorable portrait of the writer as a young girl.- | Author: Miranda Miller
- | Publisher: Barbican Press
- | Publication Date: Mar 18, 2025
- | Number of Pages:
- | Language:
- | Binding: Paperback / softback
- | ISBN-13: 9781917352000
- | ISBN-10: 191735200X
