A Child of Their Own

The adventures of a family of upper-crust porcelain dolls and their more 'common' china companions when they are bought from a London toyshop and exported to America. All the social niceties and nastinesses that operate in 'the Real' are reflected in the lives of the dolls, leading to family tensions and eventual near-tragedy. The narrator's voice is gentle and school ma'amish; she makes occasional asides to the reader and eventually steps into the story herself. The eeriness and poignancy which seems to characterise toyshop dramas is vividly conveyed in a book that deserves a wider and more critical audience than is usual for such stories.