By George - Softcover

Stace, Wesley

3.68

562 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099516152 ISBN 13: 9780099516156

Publisher: Vintage, 2009

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By George is the utterly original story of a flawed but formidable family - and of two very different boys. One is an eleven-year-old schoolboy, the other a ventriloquist's dummy. With no voice of his own but plenty to say, the dummy tells his life story; from his humble beginnings in the 1930s to his rise in fame as force's favourite during the war and the horrible secret he's been made to keep.

Years later, his self-possessed but vulnerable namesake finds himself packed off to boarding school, far from his mother Frankie, dynamic actress and Principal Boy; his grandma Queenie, children's party entertainer extraordinaire; and his bed-ridden but redoubtable great-grandmother.

While the dummy lies dusty, silent and forgotten, his young counterpart sets out to learn about his dead grandfather's past as a world-famous ventriloquist, his magical powers and their family's curious history.

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Product Description:

In the history of the Fishers, there are two Georges. One is a eleven year old, raised in boarding houses and backstages; the other, a dummy who belonged to George's grandfather. The two Georges know nothing of each other. While the dummy lies dusty, his namesake sets out to learn about his grandfather's past and their family's history.

Review:

"[Stace] has a startling imaginative talent and an anarchic sense of humour, but, crucially, he has an ability to bind good ideas to an absorbing plot" (Times Literary Supplement)

"Thoroughly satisfying" (Independent)

"An absorbing tale with an original narrative twist" (Daily Mail)

"More than a high flown yarn; it is also a well-nigh effortless portrait of alienation and sublimated affection... brimming with imagination, Wesley Stace has created as many scenes and characters as some writers would bring to a couple of novels" (Daily Telegraph)

"An ingenious novel, full of affection for a vanished world" (Daily Mail)

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