The Thoughts & Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals

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Description

Everyone has to make decisions about love. Wilfred Price, overcome with emotion on a sunny spring day, proposes to a girl he barely knows at a picnic. The girl, Grace, joyfully accepts and rushes to tell her family of Wilfred's intentions. But by this time Wilfred has realised his mistake. He does not love Grace.

On the verge of extricating himself, Wilfred's situation suddenly becomes more serious when Grace's father steps in. Up until this point in his life, Wilfred's existence has been blissfully simple, and the young undertaker seems unable to stop the swirling mess that now surrounds him. To add to Wilfred's emotional turmoil, he thinks he may just have met the perfect girl for him.

As Wilfred struggles in an increasingly tangled web of expectation and duty, love and lies, Grace reveals a long-held secret that changes everything . . .

Wendy Jones's charming first novel is a moving depiction of love and secrecy, set against the rural backdrop of a 1920s Welsh village, and beautifully told.

Reviews

Gently glorious.

Light, compassionate drama about a small, very tightly bound, ancient corner of the world. - The Guardian

'Wilfred's sentimental education is wrought so delightfully and affectionately.' - Sunday Times

a delightful story of great charm, very quirky and original.

I love this novel... who would have thought so quiet, calm and delicate a novel could keep you completely absorbed from first page to last

A skillfully drawn comedy of manners - The New Yorker

Take on its own humble terms an old-fashioned story exploring first love, loyalty and loss this diverting novel is pure pleasure - The New York Times Sunday Book Review

Jones expertly conjures the speech patterns, mores and physical details of a bygone world in this remarkable debut. - SF Gate

Author Bio

Wendy Jones was the first person to do an MA in Life Writing at UEA and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, where she teaches. She wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl, a biography of Grayson Perry (Chatto & Windus) and hosts Interesting Conversations, a literary programme on Resonancefm. She lives in London.