Product Description

In a run-down cottage, deep in woodland on the outskirts of Leicestershire, sixteen-year-old Tilda Penny lives in fear of her drunken father's violent attacks.. Born with a withered arm, Tilda is branded an outcast in the community and her only comfort is drawn from her friendship with seven-year-old Eustace Sprocket. Suffering from his aunt's intolerable abuse, he too is no stranger to rejection.

Entering her cottage one evening, Tilda stumbles apon a young man about to steal her life savings. But instead of throwing Ben McCraven out into the cold night air, she takes pity on him and offers him shelter for the night. Tilda's one simple act of kindness is to have far-reaching consequences...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113034 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Read
I am already a great fan of Lynda Page but never got around to reading this book as the cover put me off. Don't let it deter you. This book is great as good as any of her others and I wish I had read it before. A brilliant story which I couldn't put down. It's a story about a woman who has nothing and is plain and deformed but a chance meeting with a man who she mistakes for a thief changes her life forever. Lynda's character's are always so alive and her plots keep you guessing and riveted until the end.

Take A Chance On This
The two central characters in this story are both outsiders: Tilda Penny is sixteen years old, plain in appearance and slightly disfigured. Thanks to her abusive and alcoholic father, she is so poverty stricken that she is barely able to live up to her name. Ben McCraven is a young Scottish man who has dedicated his life to traversing the country in an effort to avenge a family member's death. He is so wrapped up in his quest that he has denied himself any kind of normal home life or friendship. Thanks to a series of chance events, Tilda and Ben's lives seem to be inextricably bound.

In what could have been an exercise in mawkishness, Lynda Page has in fact wriiten a book which is both funny and moving. In common with her other sagas, this is a gripping read: once started, it's hard to put the book down.

In typical Lynda Page style, the characters are colourfully brought to life. For example, Tilda's horrible father, "a nervous, trembling individual entirely dependent on alcohol" is so well defined in character, appearance and manner of speech that you can almost smell the rancid fumes that eminate from him.

The book also has several passages, minor in terms of plot, but which linger in the memory because of the sense of injustice that they arouse in the reader. In particular, Tilda's hope of working in the butcher's shop being cruelly dashed, and her innocent pleasure at watching a wedding being being curtailed by the bride's heartless parents who think Tilda's presence to be a sign of ill luck.

The romantic fiction/saga genre is one where conventions apparently have to adhered to. This is unfortunate because the only real blemish in this novel is the rushed, not to say rash introduction of a character whose purpose is to tie up loose plot strands.

Nevertheless, this is a great read for anyone who enjoys this sort of fiction. In my opinion, this is Lynda Page's best book to date.

If only all sagas were this good.
In this novel, Lynda's heroine, Tilda, is a plain girl with a deformed arm and it is these disabilities along with her alcoholic father which have prevented her from having a happy life. Apart from being able to tell a good story, Lynda also proves her ability to create powerfull and emotional scenes. The scene at the start where Tilda enters the butchers to find out the result of her job interview evokes more emotions than any literary "masterpeice" as well as doing so without long drawn out sentences. If only all saga's were as good as Lynda's!