Wise Children - Angela Carter

This is the first novel by Angela Carter that I have read and I will certainly be reading more! Having found this book when I moved house it sat on my bookcase until I was thoroughly bored and itching for print!
From the first paragraph I was hooked and can honestly say that I did not put this book down from start to finish, much to the annoyance of my kids and boyfriend!
The story is a journey through the lives of illegitmate twins Dora and Leonora Chance, beginning on the morning of their 75th birthday. The book is not in chronological order and jumps through various stages of their lives without confusing the reader of which year, month or decade they are in.
The Chances grow up believing they are the daughters of a poor chambermaid mother who died in childbirth, but as the story progresses they discover they are the illegitimate daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, head of the Hazard acting dynasty. Thrice married Hazard has children from all his wives and twins are a common occurence as he himself has a twin.
Without ruining the story, as time goes on the Chance girls find out a few family secrets and through their quest to get their father to acknowledge them as his own a whole knew legacy of deceit is uncovered.
The story is funny, bawdy in places and also has the power to tug on your heartstrings. The reader is made to feel a part of the story from page one, as if they are the proverbial fly on the wall.
Wise Children is also a great historical read with the Chances' observations of life as bastard children around the beginning of the century and gives amusing insights into how it almost certainly was to be young free and single in the roaring twenties and onwards.
A gripping read, if you like Helen Forresters' ' Twopence to cross the Mersey' then you will love this. Definately not one to be overlooked.