The young student, Zoran, from Sarajevo, who has become an au pair for the children because their parents are away so much is understanding as time goes on, but still Bluebell is alone.

In her diary, she is able to pour out many of her feelings about Iris and about the ways she misses her, her memories and her sadnesses and her beginning feelings about love. When she meets next door neighbour, Joss, an older and very confident lad, she comes to enjoy his company and to be able to talk with him - until he becomes involved romantically with Flora, and once again Bluebell feels alone - this time because she realises she has a crush on Joss and that he really isn't very reliable. Even her used-to-be best friend has deserted her. Bluebell has become very quiet, and at school she is a loner. No one talks about the tragedy, not older sister, Flora, nor the 'babies', ten year old Twig and eight year old Jasmine, and certainly not their parents. Bluebell had a twin, Iris, and three years before the start of the story, Iris has been killed in an accident. Through her diary and in the transcripts of the film clips which she takes with her new video camera, we learn a lot about her and all the family. It is thirteen year old Bluebell who has an inkling of why things have been going so wrong. Furthermore, they are constantly fighting when they are together. No one seems quite sure why, but mum has a job with a company that sells beauty products and travels all over the world, and dad is an academic with a job in Warwick that takes him away from London most of the time. A tender, funny, smart and ultimately heartwarming story.The Gadsby family is in trouble. So Blue turns to her diary and her unique way of seeing the world through her camcorder to express herself. Blue thinks and feels very deeply about life but can't really talk to anyone about it, because no one in the Gadsby family wants to address the real problem - that Blue's twin sister, Iris, died a year ago, and they are all just trying to hide their grief in busyness. The enigmatic Joss moves in next door and Blue thinks she might be falling in love, until he takes out her older sister Flora instead (who, incidentally, is trying to make a statement by dying her hair bright pink but no one takes the blindest bit of notice). Both her parents seem more interested in their careers than the family, leaving Blue and her three siblings as well as their three pet rats (who may or may not be pregnant), in the care of Zoran the au pair. Being a combination of conventional diary entries and transcripts of videos shot by the author on the camera she was given for her 13th birthday, and beginning at the end of summer.īluebell Gadsby is 13 but that's the least of her problems.

The diaries of bluebell gadsby