Among my favorites are Olive Wellwood, a complicated
woman whose writing for children supports her large family (she's based on one of my favorite childhood authors, the writer E. Nesbit); her
eldest daughter, Dorothy, whose desire to become a doctor is verbally but not always materially supported by her permissive, counter-cultural family; and Phillip, a boy with the drive and genius to become a great potter who is discovered living in the basement of the brand - new South Kensington (soon to be Victoria & Albert) Museum.
A circle of bawdy
elder women and the smart and funny sisters Snow and Josette (
among the young characters who will fascinate advanced teen readers) provide comic relief and covertly wise counsel, while Peter's extreme preparedness for the turn - of - the - millennium apocalypse offers a piquant reflection on questions of fear and faith.