In these eight stories Penelope Lively imagines how her life — and the lives of her relatives — could have turned out had a few different decisions been taken along the way. Each story provides a glimpse of a personal history which might have been; a history fallen into by a twist of fate, or a decision taken at random.

If, in 1942, her mother had chosen to leave Cairo for Cape Town rather than Palestine, Penelope and her mother might have been on one of the troopships sunk by a U-boat in the Mozambique Channel. If Penelope had fallen pregnant at 18, having had a risky night out in 1951, what might have happened had she kept the baby? What kind of woman might an illegitimate daughter have become? Conser- vative? Resentful? Despising?

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