Killing Time
A Sunday Times Bestselling 'pitch-perfect' (Observer) treat for winter.
Published on 7. November 2024
Book
Hardback
112 pages
978-0-571-39481-4 (ISBN)
Description
*** Pre-order ENOUGH SAID, Alan Bennett's fourth collection of diaries and prose, now! Publishing March 2026 ***
Killing Time is a wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett - a new story, set in a home for the elderly; a glorious, darkly comic treat.
'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
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.
Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable residents are Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, and the enterprising Mrs Foss. 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 and the surviving residents seize their moment, to scamper freely, arthritis allowing, 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.'
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER.
Killing Time was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 09/11/2024 to w/e 28/12/2024.
Killing Time is a wonderful surprise gift from Alan Bennett - a new story, set in a home for the elderly; a glorious, darkly comic treat.
'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
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.
Hill Topp House is a superior council home for the elderly. Among the unforgettable residents are Mr Cresswell the ex-cruise ship hairdresser, Mr Peckover the deluded archaeologist, and the enterprising Mrs Foss. 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 and the surviving residents seize their moment, to scamper freely, arthritis allowing, 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.'
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER.
Killing Time was a Sunday Times bestseller w/e 09/11/2024 to w/e 28/12/2024.
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 170 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
190 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-571-39481-4 (9780571394814)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2024
Faber & Faber
€11.99
Available for download
Person
ALAN BENNETT's 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, Two Besides and Allelujah! His collections of prose are Writing Home, Untold Stories (PEN/Ackerley Prize, 2006), Keeping On Keeping On and House Arrest. His fiction includes The Uncommon Reader and Smut: Two Unseemly Stories.