STONE Cradle is Louise Doughty's fifth novel and despite opening with a dreary funeral scene and an uninteresting premise . . . "the story of the lives of two women confronting the changes of the twentieth century" . . . it is a testament to Doughty's sheer talent that what she creates out of such seemingly meagre beginnings is a novel so readable and a story so engrossing that readers will likely take in this story of several generations of one family in one sitting.

The story opens with Clementina Smith's death. Her son Lijah, now an old man himself, watches as she is buried in the same grave as his late wife, Rosie.

When the undertaker comments that the two women must have been very close, Lijah laughs to himself, for he knows the two women could barely stand the sight of each other.

This scene, whilst slow and languid, sets the story up and from this point on, Doughty's writing has a wonderful sense of purpose that is reflected in the structure and pace of her narrative. She firmly guides the reader along, quickly changing from the passive opening scene of Clementina's funeral to the vividness of her life as a young girl, on the road with her Dadus and Dei (her mother and father). As a member of a Romany family, Clementina's young life is one of adventure, but she grows up quickly when she gives birth to Lijah.

Other members of her community had been put out for falling pregnant outside of marriage (and Clementina has to bear the double shame of the suspicion that her child's father is non-Romany, a gorjer man). But her parents support her and Lijah is beloved of the whole family.

Life in the vardo, their round-topped wagon, is not easy and Clementina and her family endure much hardship on their way. During Clementina's pregnancy, the family are offered a cottage by a local vicar in order to escape the bitter cold of the winter. But when Clementina overhears the vicar preaching about them in church, she panics and the family set off on the road again, unprepared, which leads to tragedy.

What is almost immediately evident in Stone Cradle is Doughty's talent and skill as a storyteller. She weaves a family tale of some complexity, getting deep into the very different characters of Clementina and Rosie and detailing with great insight their thoughts, feelings and reactions to each other when they do eventually come into one another's lives.

Stone Cradle also tells, very tenderly, of the gradual changes that have made the travellers' way of life almost unrecognisable in modern times. It is clear from Doughty's control over her characters as she leads them through their life spans, and the consistency of the voices she develops for them, that she is a controlled storyteller who holds the reader's attention. It is little wonder that she is currently writing a newspaper column on how to write a novel. Aspiring novelists everywhere would do well to take advice from her.