Product Description

Here are Alan Bennett's four hugely admired, triumphantly reviewed and bestselling stories, brought together in one book for the first time. Father! Father! Burning Bright, the savage satire on a dying man's family reaction as he still asserts control over them from the hospital bed. Over 60,000 sold in small format. The Clothes They Stood Up In, the painful story of what happens to an elderly couple when their flat is stripped completely bare. Over 200,000 sold as a small novella. The Laying on of Hands, a memorial service for a masseur to the famous that goes horribly wrong. Over 100,000 copies sold as a novella. The Lady in the Van, the true story of the eccentric old lady and her van who are invited by a homeowner to live in his garden. The homeowner is Alan Bennett and she stays for 15 years. It became a West End hit, starring Maggie Smith. Like everything Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. They all have brilliant twists, are immensely entertaining and highly moral. And all are modern classics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13617 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Alan Bennett's many stage and television plays and his prose collection, Writing Home, have made him one of Britain's best-loved authors. He has a huge international reputation for his plays and films which include: Habeus Corpus, Kafka's Dick, Private Function, The Madness of George III and many others †often multi-prize winning. But it is his fiction (The Clothes They Stood Up In

Customer Reviews

Diversions
Is there a literary form which really suits what Bennett's best at? It's the story-telling embedded in conversation he's wonderful at capturing, and which so runs through these stories, especially (for me), 'The Laying on of Hands' and 'The Clothes They Stood Up In'. But in fiction, I guess he gets diverted. A curious turn of phrase or tired cliche and he's diverted for a whole paragraph, just riffing or playing with it. Like a kid walking past a sweet shop, he just can't resist it. But story and character do suffer. And the endings...well, he doesn't like doing them, which is why the diary form suits him best, when he can stop and move on when he's tired by an idea. For example, the first story here has a wonderful opening, some sharp observations and very drole moments, and then a contrived and rather embarassing ending. But who cares! A page by Bennett is worth twenty by many writers.

For, free, too, won.,
Stars? 4,3,5 and 3 respectively so `4' maybe. `The Laying on of Hands' is a tongue in cheek account of how a clergyman and another clergyman are caught up in a memorial service for services rendered before embarrassed celebrities. `The Clothes They Stood Up In', well the Ransomes' are burgled and all is not what it seems as the event triggers a kind of enlightenment for Mrs Ransome. All too late or just in time? `Father Father Burning Bright', is a wonderfully observed account of events surrounding a dying man's family which are true to life as ever. `The Lady in the Van', an ordinary perhaps overrated piece about an eccentric lady on the road and in the garden - as true again as is typical of Bennett. This is not `Talking Heads', but 4 is fair.