This crazy world whirled around her, men and women dwarfed by toys and puppets, where even the birds are mechanical and the few human figures went masked...She was in the night once again, and the doll was herself.' Melanie walks in the midnight garden, wearing her mother's wedding dress; naked she climbs the apple tree in the black of the moon. Omens of disaster, swiftly following, transport Melanie from rural comfort to London, to the Magic Toyshop. To the red-haired, dancing Finn, the gentle Francie, dumb Aunt Margaret and Uncle Phillip. Francie plays curious night music, Finn kisses fifteen-year-old Melanie in the mysterious ruins of the pleasure gardens. Brooding over all is Uncle Philip: Uncle Philip, with blank eyes the colour of wet newspaper, making puppets the size of men, and clockwork roses. He loves his magic puppets, but hates the love of man for woman, boy for girl, brother for sister...
| ISBN | 0860681904 | | Pages | 208 | | ISBN13 | 9780860681908
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 170 | | Publisher | Little, Brown Book Group | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Virago Press Ltd | | Series title | Virago Modern Classics | | Format | Paperback | | Previous ISBN | 9781844083435 | | Publication date | 31 Dec 1981 | | Height (mm) | 198 | | Writer of introduction | Carmen Callil | | Width (mm) | 125 | | DEWEY | 823.914 | | Spine width (mm) | 14 | | DEWEY edition | DC21 | | Academic level | General |
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'The boldest of English women writers' Lorna Sage 'Her writing is pyrotechnic -- fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language' Observer
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