Product Description

It is the summer of 1965. Annie Cradock, the only child of exacting parents who run the village school, is an imaginative girl with a head full of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Annie whiles away the school holiday with her friends: Ollie the rag-and-bone man (and more importantly his dog); the beautiful piano-playing Mrs Clitheroe who turns Beethoven into boogie-woogie (and like Annie sees music in colour); and Annie's best friend Babette - streetwise, loyal, and Annie's one solid link with common sense. But everything changes when the village is rocked by a series of murders and the girls know something they've no intention of telling the police. In the present day, adult Annie is a successful singing coach in a stifling marriage. Her ambitious American husband, impatient with his quirky wife, is taking a job in New York - but is she staying with him? As Annie struggles with her future, she first has to come to terms with the bizarre events of 1965.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163676 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 359 pages

Review
British headmaster's daughter stumbles upon a murder. Not quite a mystery and not exactly a coming-of-ager, Yardley's debut presents an array of mild-mannered eccentrics in an Essex village, circa 1965, seen through the eyes of Annie Cradock, a curious and sensitive ten-year-old. Annie is fascinated to find that Mrs. Clitheroe, her pretty, dithery music teacher, also sees music in color (a precious conceit of this discombobulated plot). Annie adores music, pop tunes in particular-and she's such a bloody little genius that she creates a sculpture she calls "Ruby Tuesday" before the Rolling Stones make the song famous. Her beloved father, a not-too-strict headmaster with a taste for whimsy, builds a replica of the Empire State Building out of 7,574 matchboxes and flies off to Idlewild to present the silly thing to Mayor Robert Wagner at the World's Fair. Not long after that, Mrs. Clitheroe is murdered. Did the seemingly harmless rag-and-bone man do it? Or was it one of the gypsy travelers who camped near the village? It's all very confusing to Annie (and to the reader). Years later, Annie decides to go along when her second husband, Alan, a biotech company CEO, accepts a job offer in New York. Perhaps she can teach singing. But her old childhood friend Babette asks whether Annie can truly be happy with renting a teaching studio in Manhattan and commuting from Westchester, which is where Alan wants to live. It's a good question. Meanwhile, Annie (in London with Alan to await her visa) has begun an intense affair with Daniel, husband #1 (on their reignited passion: "Perhaps it was always inevitable . . . "). Can she go to New York and leave Daniel once again? What about Alan? Back to the past: a 40-year-old photo album turns up unexpectedly and provides some intriguing clues to the mystery of Mrs. Clitheroe's death. A talky denouement wraps it all up. A rather trivial tale-and probably too British to interest many American readers. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
It is the summer of 1965. Annie Cradock, the only child of exacting parents who run the village school, is an imaginative girl with a head full of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Annie whiles away the school holiday with her friends: Ollie the rag-and-bone man (and more importantly his dog); the beautiful piano-playing Mrs Clitheroe who turns Beethoven into boogie-woogie (and like Annie sees music in colour); and Annie's best friend Babette - streetwise, loyal, and Annie's one solid link with common sense. But everything changes when the village is rocked by a series of murders and the girls know something they've no intention of telling the police. In the present day, adult Annie is a successful singing coach in a stifling marriage. Her ambitious American husband, impatient with his quirky wife, is taking a job in New York - but is she staying with him? As Annie struggles with her future, she first has to come to terms with the bizarre events of 1965.

From the Publisher
PAINTING RUBY TUESDAY has been shortlisted for Pendleton May/Guildford Arts First Novel Award

Customer Reviews

Pick it up; laugh, cry, laugh, smile and tell your friends
I've been socialising a lot recently and in nearly every conversation I've been enthusing about this story. Wonderfully, cleverly, self-consciously written, it tells one Hell of a story in one Hell of a way. It really is a feeling book that induces you to experience everything through clever metaphor and humour. Watch out for this author - she's gonna be big. I'm making my way through her second (Rainy Day Women) and I'm already enraptured - keep being told off for reading it when I'm meant to be doing other things - like working, walking, sleeping and eating. Give it a whirl and get dizzy...

Touchy feely, lovely
Our heroine's marriage is falling apart and she is remembering five grisly murders from when she was a little girl...

Believe it or not this is a feel-good read and even very funny in places. I got a real sense of seeing events through her eyes and her imagination.

I did see the twist coming from quite early on but that was because I was so involved with the characters I could see ahead. It didn't spoil the enjoyment as the book is far from being a classic Agatha Christie puzzle. I thought it warm and life affirming and a terrific read.

Relish the writing
These reviews all seem intent on retelling the plot from different angles so instead here is some show and not tell.

"It was another fine late summer day, the morning air sweet as apple juice, the sky cloudless but for a high cirrus, blown by some unfelt stratospheric wind into feathery lace. The same wind had also nibbled the vapour trail from a recently passed jet, tickling its edges into a sort of twist like a cable stitch so the entire sky looked like something ambitious knitted by my mother."

Not a fan of murder stories? Then read Painting Ruby Tuesday for its glorious language.