Eat Cake

This is a warm, funny delight of a book, good tempered and well intentioned. From time to time everyone needs a light-hearted read and this is it. The story is straightforward: a family suddenly encounters all sorts of difficulties, from having an old parent to stay indefinitely to dealing with a stroppy and rude teenager. One after another, the problems swell up and throb leaving the main character, Ruth, only just able to cope. Her divorced and crabby parents who have not lived together since she was three are both forced to lodge with her and share her family life, which means that meal times are punctuated with appalling rows. The dialogue is very funny, all the more so since the reader is not obliged to join in. Years ago Ruth was told that in times of stress one should mentally transport oneself to a happy, peaceful place. She chooses the inside of a giant cake, one smelling of warm spice and all the other good things that Mrs. Beeton lists. As her family becomes more catastrophic she needs this refuge more and more but a new friend teaches her to make things happen rather than react to them. She climbs out, faces up to things and everyone moves on. Cake, eating cake, sharing it and offering it, beating together sugar and butter to make cake, icing cake and selling cake make up the threads that bind this novel together. A nice idea, a wholesome story and one that leaves the reader wanting more. (Kirkus UK)