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Oxenford offers a tale set in late 1990s about a young musician, her formerly famous father, and a teacher struggling with an amateur play production.

Violet is a singer-songwriter with quite a pedigree: Her father is Kieran McGann, a former founding member of Mosaic, a popular rock group from the 1960s. She lives a sparse life in a London rooming house and spends time with a lanky bass player named Len Green. Meanwhile, Kieran toils on a rock opera as his second wife, Louisa, minds their two young children. Many would like to see Kieran do something with Mosaic again, but he’s strongly against the idea; his alcoholism provides a further obstacle. Meanwhile, in Wiltshire, a schoolteacher named Roland is working on a play for a millennium celebration. It’s supposed to be based on the folktale The Maid of Ashe; since Roland had previously written his own version of the tale, he’s the perfect candidate to adapt it for the stage. However, working with his questionably talented neighbors could prove to a challenge on a par with the production in Waiting for Guffman (1996). Meanwhile, Roland’s wife Hope is off working as a travel writer. It’s a job that takes her to intriguing places, but it may lead to temptations outside her marriage. Oxenford’s novel follows these characters as their lives intersect and readers will come to care about them, especially when they go through tough times, as when Roland reflects on the first readthrough of his play of The Maid of Ashe: “Yet another depressing scenario to try to push out of his mind.” That said, the singular focus of characterization doesn’t do much to move the plot forward, and the events that do occur are fairly predictable. The entertainment comes entirely from the interplay of the characters whose triumphs and failures are often quite touching.

A low-stakes dramatic tale whose colorful individuals make it memorable.