Killing Time

(Hardback, Main)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

'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.'

Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde and peopled with an unforgettable cast, from Mr Peckover the amateur archaeologist to Mrs Rathbone the enigmatic puzzle enthusiast, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Covid before and during is the backdrop. It's the cause of fatalities and of darkly comic confusion, and it's the key to liberation for the surviving residents. As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down and the inmates seize their moment. They build a germ-guzzling bonfire, they reveal their secrets and, arthritis permitting, they scamper and frolic in the sun. This is vintage Alan Bennett, colourful, funny and deeply poignant.