Acting Up

by Libby Purves

"The Andersons are a military family, with honours and traditions stretching back two hundred years. When the second Iraq war breaks out, it is only natural that their newest generation should be represented in the ranks of British officers. And it is: at twenty-four, Lieutenant Susie Anderson delays her wedding to her handsome fellow-officer Callum, and joins her regiment on the hot sands of Kuwait." "Her brother Francis, meanwhile, continues to pursue his cabaret career as Madame Fanny Fantoni, drag chanteuse and fishnet-stockinged vamp, with a stinging line in repartee and the most remarkable falsetto top C in Clapham. As the neighbours agree, it must all be terribly difficult for their poor parents, especially the General." "The real difficulties come, though, when Callum is sent home injured, altered and bitter, to set off a painful tangle of relationships which is resolved by the least likely angel of them all." "Libby Purves' latest novel, set against a background of desert war,