- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books (Sep 7 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1861978197
- ISBN-13: 978-1861978196
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,294,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Here are Alan Bennett's four hugely admired, triumphantly reviewed and bestselling stories, brought together in one book for the first time. "Father! Father! Burning Bright" is the savage satire on a dying man's family reaction as he still asserts control over them from the hospital bed. Over 60,000 sold in small format. "The Clothes They Stood Up In" is the painful story of what happens to an elderly couple when their flat is stripped completely bare. Over 200,000 sold as a small novella. "The Laying on of Hands" is a memorial service for a masseur to the famous that goes horribly wrong. Over 100,000 copies sold as a novella. "The Lady in the Van" is the true story of the eccentric old lady and her van who are invited by a homeowner to live in his garden. The homeowner is Alan Bennett and she stays for 15 years. It became a West End hit, starring Maggie Smith. Like everything Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. They all have brilliant twists, are immensely entertaining and highly moral. And all are modern classics.
About the Author
Alan Bennett's many stage and television plays and his prose collections, Writing Home and Untold Stories, have made him one of Britain's most celebrated authors. He has a huge international reputation for his plays and films, which include A Private Function and The Madness of George III. But it is his fiction (the four short stories featured here - all published by Profile), now translated into many languages, and appearing on bestseller lists in Europe, the US and Britain, which have brought him to the widest international readership.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four Delightful Stories, Nov 30 2006
By John Matlock "Gunny" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Four Stories (Paperback)
I don't quite know how to describe this book in a way that will convey enough information to give you an inking if you would like it or not.
First some description perhaps:
This book is a collection of four of Alan Bennett's most famous, most admired short stories:
The Laying on of Hands
The Clothes They Stood up in
Father! Father! Burning Bright
and then there's 'The Lady in the Van.' You see, Mrs. Shepherd drove her van into his garden in 1974 and asked if she could park it there for a while.
'A while' turned out to be fifteen years. And she lived in the van. In 1999 he wrote a play about her that starred Maggie Smith. And the section describing the play is a cross between the story of Mrs. Shepherd (he finds a Mr. Shepherd very hard to imagine) and the writing of the play.
Some dialog from a draft version of the play:
'Mr. Bennett. Will you look under the van?'
'What for?'
One of these explosive devices. There was another bomb last night and I think I may be next on the list.'
'I can't see anything because of all your plastic bags.'
'Yes and the explosive's plastic so it wouldn't show, possibly. Are there any wires? The wireless tells you to look for wires. Nothing that looks like a timing device?'
'There's an old biscuit tin.'
Rolling on the floor laughing? No. A delight to read? Absolutely.
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