Going Gently by David Nobbs, 6 Aug 2002

His portrait of a woman, Kate Copson, and her family is brilliant.

Nobbs' book opens as Kate is on her death bed. She is days away from her 100th birthday. She has had a stroke but while her body is immobile her mind can move anywhere it likes.

She chooses to take the reader on a review of her eventful, sex-filled, love-laden life.

She is determined to live but she also has a political conscience, dignity and compassion.

This novel is filled with laughs - but will also produce many a tear as Kate looks back on her failures and victories, her husbands and her family lovers.

Written in true Nobbs' I didn't get to be the writer I am today without striving to understand human nature and the meaning of life, it is unputdownable.

Loved this Nobbs book the most except for A Bit of A Do. There is a lot of Kate Copson in Rita Simcock. But while Rita starts by being an ugy duckling who becomes a swan, Kate is never anything but beautiful and outstanding.

Nobbs always seems to be in love with his leading ladies - and invites his readers to fall for them too.

Every woman who reads this book, wants to be Kate, loved, loving having lived her life to the full faces death without fear.

Confirms Nobbs as the best writer of comedy and observer of human nature known to British literature.

His nuances of language are as perfect as his ability to twist a knife so gently you don't feel it sting til it's pierced your heart.

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