Gentleman and Ladies

bbc/programmes/b00sw542Description: Faith Lavender's funeral and the arrival of a stranger upsets the balance of Haverstock. Undercurrents of fierce emotion reach the surface, while the tensions rise and the ladies of Haverstock find their actions motivated by mutual suspicion and fear. By the author of Strange Meeting.1/5: The funeral of Faith Lavender, spinster of the parish, is attended by her family and friends and by one stranger - a man named Hubert Gaily, who never met Faith in his life 2 [...]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:The funeral of Faith Lavender, spinster of the parish, is attended by her family and friends and by one stranger - a man named Hubert Gaily, who never met Faith in his life2/5: Friendship blossoms at the village laundrette, but will Ma Gaily approve?3/5: The villagers of Haverstock look forward to the annual fete and the Gailys make an impression.4/5: Storms break and accidents happen, but can the ladies of Haverstock cope with change?5/5: Friendship and family ties are te [...]

The blurb for this book and the covers make it sound like a cosy little village full of Miss Marples and we are to expect a murder or two. Could not be wider of the mark.It's not a spoiler to say that we join the book with a funeral. This lady which we never meet is a force of personality in a small village. The book explores what happens to a small group of elderly ladies after the linchpin has been removed. It's a very honest, at times brutal exploration of mental health and old women, it touc [...]

In the books 'Afterword', Susan Hill describes Gentleman and Ladies as her 'favourite' work - she explains how she wrote her first published novel while still at school but then hit a literary detritus. Gentleman and Ladies was the light at end of this six year tunnel - completed in three months and readily accepted for publication; it marked her entrance into the world as 'proper writer' and is something of which is very proud.Inspired by childhood sojourns to the Cotswolds and her life in gent [...]

Soft, ordinary lives. beautifully written

Someone had this from the library because they had seen it advertised in the back of a Dodie Smith novel -- which is, by the by, a fascinating way of discovering new books and lost authors, picking up things that were advertised in the past and seeing what they are like. But as it turns out, Susan Hill is not lost at all, I simply had not heard of her. This is her second novel, from 1968, about a group of middle-aged women in a village in the aftermath of a death. It is an odd book, I think; the [...]

I do like Susan's Hill writing. For the past few years I've been reading as many of her books as I find, or am given. I enjoy her ghost stories and short stories, I haven't read so many of her novels yet. This is a great story, albeit a little depressing. Ma lifts the book at points where you really need to smile. She's a great character.I found her Susan Hill's afterword regarding how she feels about now the book interesting.

A small village, some middle-aged and elderly women each with their own crosses to bear and a lot of time on their hands! A gentle novel in which very little of note happens but what does is not missed behind the twitching curtains! A reading group book which I wouldn't have picked up in a hundred years! Not intolerable, for all that.

The characters completely failed to engage me, so I gave up on this one.