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Product Description
THE GRIM SMILE OF THE FIVE TOWNS is a collection of short stories, based on the Potteries district of Staffordshire.
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First Sentence
In the Five Towns the following history is related by those who know it as something side-splittingly funny-as one of the best jokes that ever occured in a district devoted to jokes. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt
In the Five Towns the following history is related by those who know it as something side-splittingly funny-as one of the best jokes that ever occured in a district devoted to jokes. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
immensely readable short stories with a twist. I loved the four linked stories of the acquisitive Vera, always overspending her allowance and trying to find a solution. Also the tale of poor Horace, who feels himself to blame for his stepbrother's alleged illness, so that he is forever over compensating and being taken advantage of. Not forgetting 'the burglary' in which local dignitary Sir Jehoshaphat, having been awarded an extremely unflattering portrait of himself arranges to have it stolen...very enjoyable
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I have only one thing to say about this lovely little book and that is IT MADE ME HOMESICK! My roots are in Stoke-on-Trent.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't have this edition, so can't comment on things like typos etc. This, Bennett's second collection of short stories about the Five Towns is my personal favourite. The humour is dry and sometimes brutal, typical of the North of England. Also, since the stories normally feature ordinary people, much of the conversation is in dialect. Coming from Lancashire, barely 30 miles from where these tales are located, this is not a problem for me - the Lancashire dialect is very similar, even today. Bennett is brilliant at transliterating dialect, so if you want to hear how it sounds, just say the words exactly as spelt.
My favourite tale here is about Toby who, sick of being repeatedly reminded that their house belongs to his wife, leaves her for America. Returning years later to live in Derby - a few miles from his wife, he doesn't bother to contact her. One day, faced with a long wait for a train to Derby, Toby takes the train to Turnhill instead - where he last saw his wife. She, meanwhile, still lives in the same house, has remarried, has a grown-up child, and is widowed. The taciturn dialogue between the two, as they reinstate their former relationship with neither questions nor recriminations, is a delight to read and extremely funny. A close run second is "The Lion's Share", about two half-brothers. When they are children, Horace, the elder, accidentally drops the younger Sidney downstairs causing apparently permanent serious injuries, that defy precise medical diagnosis. Horace spends the rest of his life paying for this. There are also several hilarious tales about Vera, the beautiful, but hare-brained, wife of the wealthy Stephen Cheswardine - a successful local pottery manufacturer. Vera and Stephen have a very loving relationship, spiced-up by frequent fights to the death over things like new hats!
Bennett has suffered decades in the fashion wilderness, a process only recently being reversed by returning critical appreciation of his classical novels like "Clayhanger" and "The Old Wives' Tale". His skill as an author of short-stories remains, however, largely forgotten. Something the re-publication of this delightful collection will surely put right.
My favourite tale here is about Toby who, sick of being repeatedly reminded that their house belongs to his wife, leaves her for America. Returning years later to live in Derby - a few miles from his wife, he doesn't bother to contact her. One day, faced with a long wait for a train to Derby, Toby takes the train to Turnhill instead - where he last saw his wife. She, meanwhile, still lives in the same house, has remarried, has a grown-up child, and is widowed. The taciturn dialogue between the two, as they reinstate their former relationship with neither questions nor recriminations, is a delight to read and extremely funny. A close run second is "The Lion's Share", about two half-brothers. When they are children, Horace, the elder, accidentally drops the younger Sidney downstairs causing apparently permanent serious injuries, that defy precise medical diagnosis. Horace spends the rest of his life paying for this. There are also several hilarious tales about Vera, the beautiful, but hare-brained, wife of the wealthy Stephen Cheswardine - a successful local pottery manufacturer. Vera and Stephen have a very loving relationship, spiced-up by frequent fights to the death over things like new hats!
Bennett has suffered decades in the fashion wilderness, a process only recently being reversed by returning critical appreciation of his classical novels like "Clayhanger" and "The Old Wives' Tale". His skill as an author of short-stories remains, however, largely forgotten. Something the re-publication of this delightful collection will surely put right.
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