Killing Time : A Sunday Times Bestselling pitch-perfect (Observer) treat for winter.

Author: Bennett, Alan

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 7 November 2024 by FABER & FABER in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 112 pages
136 x 176 x 17 | 190g

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. A mini-masterpiece. THE TIMESFull of wit and style. OBSERVERA terrific cast of characters, and secrets and chaos aplenty. iNEWSA geriatric Lord of the Flies. SPECTATORWe have a choir and on special occasions a glass of dry sherry. Its 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 theres 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 its 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? Shell be having a little lie-down, said Mrs McBryde. She likes to give her pacemaker a rest. Ill rout her out.Killing Time was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 09/11/2024 to w/e 28/12/2024.