This easy-going story is set in the seaside resort that is Blackpool, Northern England in the late 1950’s. The sense of place and time really comes through in the book, and centers around one family on a week’s holiday by the sea. The book tells the story of each family member in turn during the course of the week; my favourite being 8 year old Beth and her mission to complete her ‘I-Spy by the Sea’ book so she can become Chief I-Spy Red Feather! She was me as a child – heck, this is me now – in the way she is with that book; the book is so dog eared and well thumbed and scribbled in by the end as she fastidiously tries her best to complete each ‘challenge.’ (Anal spring to mind!) A lot of the story is seen through Beth’s eyes but her story is perhaps the least important as we deal with teenage rebellion, adultery, mill closures and Union strikes, prostitutes, family rifts, and a country and time that it still reeling and recovering from the effects of the War. If you’re after an easy read that has enough mini-plots to keep you turning those pages, then I recommend ‘The Palace of Strange Girls’ by Sallie Day.
Reading in the Bath 