‘The day my father was arrested for murder began promisingly.'
Harriet is the middle child of a large and celebrated family- ‘the charming Byngs' –all of them known to be beautiful, egocentric and feckless. Her father, a famous classical actor, is alleged to have fractured his rival's skull, while performing in King Lear, with a tool used for putting out the Duke of Gloucester's eyes.
Dark stories of professional enmities and adulterous liaisons – and the damaging testimony of three witnesses – keep her father in jail. The Byngs are left to find the means to support their expensive and eccentric way of life while coping with the ferocious attention of the media and the police.
Harriet, struggling with her new job, her father's mistresses and an unlikely fairy godfather, begins a journey of personal education during which she learns that villains may smile and heroes be cunningly disguised.
Clouds Among the Stars is a hugely enjoyable novel. The family's attempts to remain solvent and their adventures in the world of work are consistently entertaining, witty and perceptive. With an outstanding cast of characters, wonderful scenes and outrageous theatrical behaviour, it is a book to relish and re-read.
