Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani

This was the first book I read on my camping trip. I had initially picked it up in a bookshop a few weeks ago. I had read Itani's earlier novel "Deafening" which I enjoyed a lot. I didn't buy it at the bookshop but jotted down the name and reserved it at my wonderful library and it arrived a few days before we left.

It tells the story of Georgina Witley who was born on the same day as Queen Elizabeth - 21 April 1926 - this is one of the reasons why I wanted to read the book as my Mum was born four days before Queenie. Georgie has received an invite to a birthday lunch at Buckingham Palace for 99 Commonwealth subjects born the same day and is on her way to the airport when her car plunges off the edge of the road and into a wooded ravine. Georgie is thrown from the car and has major injuries so is unable to move. Her car isn't visible from the road and as her family and neighbours expect her to be on her way to London there will be no search.

Georgie lays there trying to stay conscious by reminiscing about her life. She reflects on her role as daughter, wife, sister, mother and widow - with great wit and emotion. I especially loved her childhood memories. Itani really has a gift for conjuring up a vivid picture for the reader.

The title of the book refers to Georgie's childhood exercise of reciting the bones of the body after memorizing them from her father's copy of Gray's Anatomy - as she lies in the ravine she uses this exercise to remind her she is still very much alive.

There are also lots of references to Queen Elizabeth and to what she was doing at important periods of Georgie's life.

I really enjoyed it! I loved Georgie's guts, humour and her zest for life as an octogenarian - her mother is still alive at 103!! It's tremendously moving and I would read it again.