A Cuckoo in the Nest

by Michelle Magorian Book 1 in the Hollis Family Books series.

First published 1994

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4.2(786)

In the first Hollis Family novel, Ralph Hollis returns from wartime evacuation with an education and ambitions that no longer fit the life expected of him. His father wants him to accept secure work at the paper mill, but Ralph is drawn to acting and to the possibilities opened by the theatre, creating a conflict between family loyalty, class identity and personal talent.

Set in the first difficult years after the Second World War, the novel follows Ralph through unemployment, rehearsal rooms and strained relationships at home. Magorian uses his struggle to show how education and wartime displacement unsettled established social boundaries, while the Hollis family’s arguments reveal the pressures of austerity, work and respectability in a changing Britain.