Product Description

Autobiographical and idiosyncratic, this is a collection of Alan Bennett's prose writings, assembled by Bennett himself from over a quarter of a century of diaries, reminiscences, broadcasting and reviews. It includes his address at Russell Harty's memorial service, and recollections of growing up in Leeds. At the heart of the collection is "The Lady in the Van", his true account of Miss Mary Shepherd, a tramp who took up residence in his garden and stayed for 15 years. This edition has an additional three years of diaries and journalism, including a tribute to the late Peter Cook.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208938 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 482 pages

Customer Reviews

A morning tonic to be taken daily.
Any book that can relieve the tedium, grime and discomfort of London's Northern Line from East Finchley to Totenham Court Road, has to be given space in the work bag - even if it means elbowing the tupperware box of sarnies. This delightful collection of poignant and often amusing recollections and observations are a joy from beginning to end.

Like sitting at the feet of an imaginary favourite uncle...
Alan Bennett is a man of great humanity, who writes openly about closed lives in a way that feels very special. My gran used to shop at Bennett's father's shop, and I live across the river from Armley, where he grew up, so this episodic personal history has extra layers to it.

Yet there are plenty of layers for even the most casual reader - this could easily be what I would call 'a bog book', although some parts would require quite severe constipation for successful completion in one go. There are snippets, remembrances, essays, criticism... This is basically a collection of all the best bits of Bennett's non-fiction writing.

There is barely a hair's breadth between much of this writing and that of something like 'Talking Heads', which carries the same level of affectionate honesty. Bennett seems to be such a dispassionate person, as if observing the world through glass, yet when one chooses to see the world from his happy-sad perspective, one is often moved to tears. I'm not sure I can explain it: sometimes it's like Mr Spock from Star Trek, mystified at humans in general, and human emotion in particular.

Bennett is not a religious man (although he had a religious upbringing), yet this book instills in me a sense of wonder at the ordinary things in life, and a hope that I, too, might see below the surface, even as I am staring at it, seeing nothing else.

Essential for every bookshelf
I have returned to this book several times. I have laughed till I cried at the hilarious observations and choked up at the most poignantly sad passages, both aspects of Bennett's writing especially evident in 'The Lady in the Van' reproduced in its entirety in this collection. A gem of a book from a rare gem of a man.