Double Act (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Double Act is a 1995 children's novel by Jacqueline Wilson, written in the style of a diary, which follows the story of identical twins, Ruby and Garnet. It won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the Children's Book Award, as well as being shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
Ruby and Garnet are extremely close twin-sisters but will their friendship survive the major changes that have started to happen in their lives?
[edit] Plot summary
 |
The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
The book takes the form of the twins writing the story of their life in an Accounts book – Ruby’s writing is in a regular font and Garnet’s writing is in italics.
Ruby and Garnet are extremely close. They are best friends as well as sisters, always playing together, developing their own twin-language, games and pranks. Ruby is more confident and bossier than Garnet who values their friendship very highly. They live with their father and their Gran, who has lived with them since their mother died when they were seven years old.
The twins are upset when their father brings new friend (and later girlfriend) home for dinner. Both the twins and Gran end up hating her, as well as the ways dating Rose changes Richard manner and style of clothing. Their father is then made redundant from his job and the twins find they have to prepare for a bigger change as their Gran has to go into sheltered accommodation and their father has decided to start up a bookshop. Then to their horror they are told they are moving away from Gran and going to live with their Dad and Rose.
The twins misbehave on the car journey, and when they get to the village which they dislike (but Garnet does like the countryside). They then run away from helping Rose decorate “The Red Bookshop” (named so as rubies, garnets and roses are all red) and hang out in the village, as well a meeting "The Blob" who makes fun of them being twins. They are not keen on their new school, but Ruby hates it and Garnet makes the best of it. Garnet does not join in with Ruby in a mirror-writing trick, but becomes friends with a girl called Judy. When the class embarks on a project, a large painting of Noah’s Ark, Ruby gets cross with Garnet as she picks the twins favourite animal – the Giraffe – to paint. However, rather than being pleased, Ruby is cross as she wanted to paint fleas and then slack-off and is even more so when Judy works with Garnet on the Giraffes.
When they return home Ruby is angry with Garnet and refuses to speak to her. In the evening they watch the The Railway Children. However even this treat and chocolates does not make up for the fact that Ruby is angry with her. The two make up the next day and while making paper-dolls out of newspaper Ruby spots an article advertising open auditions for the parts of the twins in a TV adaptation of “the Twins at St Clares”. Ruby is desperate to go and when her father refuses to take them Ruby sets about selling some of her possessions – including a china doll – to cover their travel expenses to get to the place where the auditions are being held in London.
Garnet goes to please Ruby but becomes extremely nervous (performing in public being a great phobia of hers). When they audition Ruby does well but just as Garnet is about to do her part their father arrives and Garnet clams-up – auditioning poorly. Their father is angry with them and Garnet is very unhappy as she feels she has let Ruby down (although their father says that even if they had won the parts he would not have given them permission to be on the show).
Ruby sees some TV coverage of the auditions (briefly seeing herself) and thinks the twins selected are appalling. However, she sees the girls boarding school the show is being filmed at – Marnock Heights – and becomes inspired by the idea of going. Garnet goes along with the plan to attempt to go there – largely because she does not want to let Ruby down. They write to the headmistress, expressing their desire (or rather Ruby’s desire) to attend the school and receive a letter and the school prospectus as a reply. However, when Ruby shows their father he points out that he could not afford to send them.
The letter from Mrs Jeffries, the headmistress, mentioned that a scholarship had become available and invited the twins to arrange to take the entrance exam. After Ruby pesters their father he agrees to let the twins take the exam. Ruby strongly believes that they will some how be able to go together despite there only being one scholarship left. Ruby is very eloquent in the interview – Garnet (and Ruby!) believe she did brilliantly. When they tour the school Ruby falls in love with the place. They sit the written entrance exam and, after talking about what they wrote, Ruby criticises Garnet’s approach – insisting she has not dealt with the exam in the right way.
When they receive a reply from Mrs Jeffries the twins (especially Ruby), are amazed that Garnet is the one being offered he scholarship. Mrs Jeffries suggesting that, although Ruby is imaginative and confident, she is dependant on Garnet for her written work (her exam performance was not great) and would achieve her academic potential better without Garnet. Whilst Garnet, although she lets Ruby to all her talking for her, did brilliantly on the written exam and would to well at Marnock Heights (where she might develop confidence and her own voice away from Ruby).
Ruby is shocked and unhappy, she cannot stand being with Garnet and refuses to be friends with her – trying to make herself as different from her twin sister as possible by adopting a tomboy-style. Garnet is unhappy and distraught without her sister over the summer holiday and scared about going to boarding school. She spends time with Judy from school but misses her sister. When their Gran visits she does not like Ruby’s new style (Ruby deliberately dressed in a scruffy way) but she has become happy in her new life and had a man in her life, Albert. Garnet is miserable as Ruby claims they can never be twins again – whether she takes up the scholarship or not.
(The story is now written in Ruby’s personal notebook)
Ruby insists that she does not need Garnet, that Garnet will not be able to cope without her and that she is happier on her own – playing and exploring around the village. When the twins father has to sell Garnet’s china doll (the twin of the one Ruby sold to get money for travelling to the auditions), to afford Garnet’s new pricy school uniform and supplies, it turns out to be extremely valuable. Rose is angry when she discovered what a small amount the man who brought Ruby’s doll paid her and manages to get the buyer to pay Ruby a more reasonable price. Ruby is pleased to have money to spend on herself and not having to share.
One day she had a fight with The Blob and his gang after they call her Baldie. The Blob/Jeremy stops one of his gang keeping Ruby in a choke hold so the Blob/Jeremy may hit her and insists they have a fair fight. However they do not have much of a fight and decide not to pick on one another eventually becoming good fiends.
When the reality that Garnet is going away to school and she is moving on to a new school too hits home – that will be physically separate after being emotionally separate for the summer holidays. Ruby begins to regret her behaviour – realising that she has been cruel to Garnet and that she would have been as scared of going away to school as Garnet is in her circumstances. Ruby makes-up with Garnet before she leave. Garnet promises to write to Ruby every day and keep her account book as her diary whilst Ruby will get a new note book to do the same and becomes happier and more hopeful about her new school as well as her acting ambitions (Rose finds her a drama club she can attend in the nearby town) and the book ends with Garnet’s first postcard from school (saying she is fine) and re-affirming that Garnet and Ruby will always be sisters and friends.
[edit] Characters
- Ruby Barker: aged eleven and older (by twenty minutes) identical twin-sister of Garnet. She is confident, imaginative and lively and her ambition is to be an actress. She is the more dominant character of the pair. She is also the messy twin.
- Garnet Barker: slightly younger identical twin-sister of Ruby. She is shy and thoughtful and tends to go along with Ruby’s wishes. She is the tidy twin.
- Richard Barker: father of the twins and son in law of Gran. He has a dull and stressful office job in London until he is made redundant and uses is severance pay to carry out his dream of owning a book shop – moving to the countryside with Rose and the twins to do so.
- Gran: mother-in-law of Richard Barker. Formerly a professional dressmaker before her arthritis made her work impossible – she lives with Richard and the twins until she has to go into sheltered accommodation.
- Rose: girlfriend of Richard Barker. She is initially disliked by Gran and the twins. She and Richard met through the car boot sales which they both frequently attend.
[edit] Minor Characters
- Opal: deceased mother of the twins. She died of an illness when they were small.
- Jeremy Treadgold/The Blob: boy from the village the twins move to who frequently picked on the twins (with the aid of his gang) during the book. He and Ruby are friends in the end.
- Miss Debenham: the twin’s teacher at the village school
- Judy: a girl at the village school Garnet becomes friends with (Ruby dislikes her)
- Mrs Jeffries: headmistress of the boarding school Marnock Heights
- Uncle Albert: Gran’s boyfriend who lives in the same building.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
It was also adapted into a successful stage play and a TV movie starring Zoe Tempest Jones as Ruby and Chloe Tempest-Jones as Garnet.
