Charlotte is attacked by a robber and breaks her leg, and so her daughter Rose cannot accompany her employer Lord Peters to Manchester, and so his niece Marion has to go in her place, and so Marion sends her lover a text message, which is intercepted by his wife, and therefore... In the novel “How It All Began,” Penelope Lively shows how one random event can finally and irrevocably change the lives of many people. This funny, humane, touching and at the same time mischievous book is another masterpiece from the pen author at the height of fame, winner of the Booker Prize.