Killing Time

Alan Bennett

$22.99

Hardback

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English

Faber & Faber
04 February 2025

Fiction & Literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Humour

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- A novella from the much admired Bennett is to be celebrated, and this small offering, though not as fine as The Uncommon Reader, is quite delightful in its own way.

It's set in the superior council home Hill Topp House, which is home to an array of eccentric elderly residents. As Covid begins its inevitable advance, they find that life can still give them opportunities to learn and to enjoy themselves...

A gently satiric and observant work! Lindy

The Sunday Times bestseller. Killing Time is a wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett – a new story, set in a home for the elderly; a glorious, darkly comic treat.

We have a choir and on special occasions a glass of dry sherry. It's less of a home and more of a club and very much a community.

Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable cast of staff and residents there's Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, Phyllis the knitter, Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, the enterprising Mrs Foss and Mr Jimson the chiropodist.

Covid is the cause of fatalities and the source of darkly comic confusion, but it's also the key to liberation. As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down. Miss Rathbone reveals a lifelong secret, and the surviving residents seize their moment, arthritis allowing, to scamper freely in the warmth of the summer sun.

'Violet? She'll be having a little lie-down,' said Mrs McBryde. 'She likes to give her pacemaker a rest. I'll rout her out.'

Praise:

Killing Time was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 09/11/2024 to w/e 28/12/2024.

'A mini-masterpiece.' The Times

'Full of wit and style.' Observer

'A terrific cast of characters, and secrets and chaos aplenty.' iNews

'A geriatric Lord of the Flies.' Spectator

By: Alan Bennett
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 168mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780571394814
ISBN 10: 0571394817
Pages: 112
Publication Date: 04 February 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

ALAN BENNETT's works for stage and screen include Talking Heads, Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III, an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, The History Boys, The Habit of Art, People, Hymn, Cocktail Sticks, Two Besides and Allelujah! His collections of prose are Writing Home, Untold Stories (PEN/Ackerley Prize, 2006), Keeping On Keeping On and House Arrest. His fiction includes The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories.

MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS! SHOW ME MORE

Killing Time

Alan Bennett

$22.99

Hardback

Reviews for Killing Time

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