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Killing Time
A Sunday Times Bestselling 'pitch-perfect' (Observer) treat for winter.
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 29 ratings, 3 reviews)
Brief Description
We have a choir and on special occasions a glass of dry sherry. It's less of a home and more of a club and very much a community.Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among...
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See moreA wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett, in his ninetieth year - a brand new novella, set in a home for the elderly; a glorious, darkly comic treat.
A wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett - a 'mini-masterpiece' (The Times) set in a home for the elderly; a glorious, darkly comic treat.
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Description
We have a choir and on special occasions a glass of dry sherry. It's less of a home and more of a club and very much a community.
Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable cast of staff and residents there's Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, Phyllis the knitter, Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, the enterprising Mrs Foss and Mr Jimson the chiropodist. Covid is the cause of fatalities and the source of darkly comic confusion, but it's also the key to liberation. As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down. Miss Rathbone reveals a lifelong secret, and the surviving residents seize their moment, arthritis allowing, to scamper freely in the warmth of the summer sun.
'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.'
'A mini-masterpiece.' THE TIMES
'Full of wit and style.' OBSERVER
'A terrific cast of characters, and secrets and chaos aplenty.' iNEWS
'A geriatric Lord of the Flies.' SPECTATOR
Presided over by the lofty Mrs McBryde, Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable cast of staff and residents there's Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, Phyllis the knitter, Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, the enterprising Mrs Foss and Mr Jimson the chiropodist. Covid is the cause of fatalities and the source of darkly comic confusion, but it's also the key to liberation. As staff are hospitalised, protocol breaks down. Miss Rathbone reveals a lifelong secret, and the surviving residents seize their moment, arthritis allowing, to scamper freely in the warmth of the summer sun.
'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.'
'A mini-masterpiece.' THE TIMES
'Full of wit and style.' OBSERVER
'A terrific cast of characters, and secrets and chaos aplenty.' iNEWS
'A geriatric Lord of the Flies.' SPECTATOR
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780571394821
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 September 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Edition: Main
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 168.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 112
Collections
About the Author
ALAN BENNETT has been a leading dramatist since Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His works for stage and screen include Talking Heads, Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, The Madness of George III, an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, The History Boys, The Habit of Art, People, Hymn, Cocktail Sticks and Allelujah! His collections of prose are Writing Home, Untold Stories (PEN/Ackerley Prize, 2006) and Keeping On Keeping On. His pandemic diary, House Arrest, was a Times bestseller. Six Poets contains Bennett's selection of English verse, accompanied by his commentary. His fiction includes The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories.
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Killing Time
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