On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper.
Then one day Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unexpected friendship with Ludo, a handsome young writer, and learns that even the old can fall in love . . .
- ‘A funny and honest examination of the casual cruelty we can sometimes inflict upon each other’ Daily Mail
- ‘Elizabeth Taylor had the keenest eye and ear for the pain lurking behind a genteel demeanour’ Paul Bailey, Guardian
- ‘How deeply I envy any reader coming to her for the first time!’ Elizabeth Jane Howard
- ‘The unsung heroine of British 20th century fiction’ Rebecca Abrams, New Statesman
Paperback:
£8.99
Published 06/04/2006