By George

By George is the utterly original story of a flawed but formidable family - and of two very different boys. One is an eleven-year-old schoolboy, the other a ventriloquist''s dummy. With no voice of his own but plenty to say, the dummy tells his life story; from his humble beginnings in the 1930s to his rise in fame as force''s favourite during the war and the horrible secret he''s been made to keep.

Years later, his self-possessed but vulnerable namesake finds himself packed off to boarding school, far from his mother Frankie, dynamic actress and Principal Boy; his grandma Queenie, children''s party entertainer extraordinaire; and his bed-ridden but redoubtable great-grandmother.

While the dummy lies dusty, silent and forgotten, his young counterpart sets out to learn about his dead grandfather''s past as a world-famous ventriloquist, his magical powers and their family''s curious history.