New acquisition/I capture the castle 410

I'm still finding ways and means to acquire books despite having given up their purchase for Lent. The other week I joined "Bookhopper", a site where you can upload books which you no longer want, to see if anyone else wants them, and in return have a look at other people's unwanted books. About half of the books I uploaded were snapped up immediately, and I managed to get a VMC that I didn't have in return - I capture the castle. I'm surprised that I didn't have a copy of this book as it is one of my favourites , so I was very happy when that arrived.

I won't write much about it here because there are any number of reviews on Amazon and blogs and librarythings, and it is difficult to do justice to such a lovely book not having read it especially recently. But I will just mention its opening lines which are perhaps my favourite of all opening lines..."I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" - what a wonderful picture that conjures up, and how could one not want to read on from that beginning??

It's actually been published 3 times by Virago, most recently with a film tie in edition - I highly recommend the film which is a lovely adaption starring Ramola Garai, Rose Byrne, Tara Fitzgerald and Bill Nighy). My copy is the rather lovely middle one. Definitely a 5* VMC.