Product Description

At 'The Hollyhocks' old people's home, the inhabitants are 'waiting for the scythe'. But while they are waiting...Lady Celia is running a blackmailing business on the side, Mr Cross keeps a tally of fellow residents' deaths on the back of his wardrobe, and then there is the rabid old Scots nationalist, and Mrs Green, a woman with a mysterious past. Hardly surprising in this environment that Mrs Bellamy decides she can't take any more and slits her throat. When Matron hushes it up because it would be bad for business, Lady Celia sees an opportunity to expand her blackmailing operation. Meanwhile two new incomers disturb the life of the home further; Mrs Feinberg, a sprightly Jewish woman of whom the other residents are immediately suspicious, and the elegant Mr Rufus. Hidden pasts, unusual sexual preferences and wickedly dark humour are mixed to delicious effect in Bernice Rubens' wonderful new novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328463 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'At once taboo-breakingly funny and sentiently profound ... astonishing' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Rubens is compassionately eloquent. She also, as always, gleefully extracts comedy from the most unlikely sources' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A vision of old age that owes nothing to political correctness ... honest and humane' INDEPENDENT 'Hilarious ... intelligent and funny, Rubens' splendid prose is untainted by phoney sentiment ... read it and don't weep' EVENING STANDARD 'Written with scathing wit.' TIME OUT 'Bernice Rubens writes with both humour and sympathy about the indignities of old age in an ingenious novel with a compelling and chilling plot.' EXPRESS ON SUNDAY 'I read THE WAITING GAME avidly, in one evening, and found myself pondering about the characters for several days after I had finished it.' LITERARY REVIEW

DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Rubens is compassionately eloquent. She also, as always, gleefully extracts comedy from the most unlikely sources'

INDEPENDENT
'A vision of old age that owes nothing to political correctness ... honest and humane'

Customer Reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
This is rubens at her naughtiest - bad language, kinky sex, blackmail, even chat lines - all the works - and all in a home for the aged believe it or not ! This is the sort of home i want my kids to book me into, and i don`t mind going early !!
It`s all going on in here...
Well done rubes !!

"Who, if anybody, will I survive today?"
As usual, Rubens gets under your skin and provokes a reaction, unflinchingly portraying a realism in her characters that will have you shocked, delighted, grinning knowingly - but always involved in the schemes and desires of her characters.

Hollyhocks is a classy rest-home, but rather than sleepy, medicated old dears, this home seethes with sharp instincts, and sharper tongues, making secrets hard to keep, and hope hard to kill. Extortion, blackmail, deviant sexual practices and incontinence:- If this is old age, count me in !

Stunning
Who would have known all the things that can happen in a home for the elderly.... Bernice Rubens obviously does and she tells us with all her own peculiar wit! A great read!