Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum

The reader's guides in the Continuum Contemporaries series are excellent. This one for Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum is excellent. Great overview with concise analytical information including author information.

Kate Atkinson is a genius, and this is a great little book all about her first novel. According to the book, Kate thinks that her second novel Human Croquet is better, but I disagree. Behind the Scenes at the Museum is just amazing. In the first chapter of this, she comes across as slightly mad - which she may well be. When a British newspaper asks her for her favourite ten books, for example, she manages to squeeze in thirteen. (But it's a great list anyway!) The book talks about her obsession with dogs and with Lewis Carroll, and gets very in-depth about Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which I thought was fascinating. And you would not believe the patronising nonsense that some male reviewers and judges came out with about the novel. Just unbelievable. Anyway, if you haven't read anything by Kate Atkinson then you're really missing out. If you have, and you loved it, then read this book as well. It tells you so many things about a brilliant writer.