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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
funny and bittersweet., 21 Dec 2003
Tom Keeling is 50 and considered by many to be a highly successful man. He started out with one fish-shop and now owns a chain of department stores, he has been elected as Mayor of Bracebridge, he gives generously to charity, he lives in a big, comfortable house on the edge of town with his socially-ambitious wife, and three nearly grown-up children. But Tom senses something is missing with his lot, and when he meets his efficient new secretary he realises what that is. Norah Propert is intelligent, charming and shares his love of books and country walks, whereas his wife is only interested in press cuttings of herself as Lady Mayoress, and when she's going to get her next invite to Lord and Lady Inverbroom's house. The way that Tom and Norah's feelings for each other gradually unfolds is done with great delicacy and sensitivity. I thought at first that it might turn out as though Norah was on the fiddle, only after Tom's loot, but she turns out to be genuine, and on the rare occasions when Tom stops being a businessman, he is shown to have more depth to him than is immediately apparent. This is also a very funny book. In fact the first few pages of it seem to be one of Benson's wonderfully bitchy satires, you get no indication of the tenderness that is to come. One of Benson's gifts as a writer is that you can easily start off thinking he hates his characters, and is only sending them up, but this is not so. The opening scenes, which cover a typical family Sunday in the Keeling household, are beautifully acidy. Tom Keeling's mother-in-law, a spiteful old lady, never misses a moment during the Sunday roast to remind him that he only started off as a fish-monger, and eventually causes such a poisonous atmosphere that she has to be "led away from the table like a wicked little elephant". On top of that Keeling's daughter Alice has an impossible crush on the new vicar, Mr Silverdale. Impossible because Mr Silverdale is as camp as Christmas! In fact what a wonderful role this would have been for Charles Hawtrey! Everytime Silverdale appears I kept expecting him to utter Hawtrey's trademark "Oh hello!" Staying on the comedy front, there are also strong touches of Margot Leadbetter or Hyacinth Bucket about Tom's wife, with her stuffed crocodile in the hallway, (to receive letters), making her male staff wear uniforms covered in buttons, and her fury at finding Norah coming into the house by the front door. This is one of Benson's least-known novels, and yet it is a delight, and very moving too.
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