Product Description

Patrick Parker, child of bomb-devastated Coventry, adored and encouraged by his mother, fulfils his dream destiny to be a great architect and bridge builder. Audrey Wapshott, born at the same time, feels her dream destiny is to become Patrick's wife. But ambitious Patrick has other plans and Audrey, abandoned, is left to follow her own, random path to self-fulfilment beginning with Paris, and sinfulness, in the arms of a much older man.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #346316 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This really is delightful stuff. With Patrick Parker's Progress, Mavis Cheek demonstrates once again that she is one of the wittiest and most enjoyable of writers, with a grasp of modern social comedy that puts many of her peers in the shade. Those who consider their dealings in love and sex to have been somewhat fraught will recognise many moments here.

The year is 1940, and the city of Coventry is in flames. One child miraculously escapes the flames, and is sent to London. This is Mavis Cheek's protagonist, the eponymous Patrick Parker, who has a shining future ahead of him. He is to be an architect in the vein of his idol Brunel, and build great civic structures. But things will not go as smoothly as Patrick might wish: his relationship with the determined Audrey Wapshott has seemed to be the perfect choice--she adores him, and their destinies appear to be interlinked. But Patrick then does the unthinkable--he dumps Audrey to take up with a woman who will be able to advance his career. Audrey leaves for Paris, and begins to forge a new life--and when Audrey and Patrick meet again, there will be significant changes ahead in both their lives.

As in the equally delightful The Sex Life of My Aunt, Cheek has total command of the pitfalls of human relationships--her characters (both beautifully characterised) bounce off each other in highly diverting ways, but not at the expense of a plausible narrative. Comic this may be, but it plays fair by its own internal rules. The observation here is spot on, and this is highly enjoyable fare. --Barry Forshaw

Review
"'There has always been a touch of the Alan Bennett about Mavis Cheek. Both writers share an uncanny talent for capturing the cadences of the way we speak, and for re-creating them on the page so delicately and with such charm that it takes your breath away... Cheek is an English author to be cherished.' Daily Mail 'There is much of Alan Sillitoe and John Braine in the portrait of the working-class boy on the make, and Cheek has a excellent eye for detail...' Michael Arditti, Daily Express"

Sainsbury's Magazine
‘Nobody does satire better than Mavis Cheek . . . this is a genuinely witty book full of laugh-out-loud moments.'

Customer Reviews

a great read
This is the fifth Mavis Cheek novel I've read and I think she gets better with each one. If you're expecting the same book from her every time, you'll be disappointed. Mrs Fitton's Country Life and Aunt Margaret's Lover are hilarious. The Sex Life of My Aunt is moving and very perceptive. Patrick Parker's Progress is more serious, it looks at the role of women, how they've always been expected to play second fiddle to men's creativity and how their own has never been encouraged. It's a really good story with some wonderful characters. Mavis Cheek has a very particular style, which maybe you like or you don't. I love it!

Good Holiday Reading
Just had to tell you I've finished reading "Patrick Parker's Progress" which I didn't want to put down. This is the second novel I've read by Cheek, the 1st was "Mrs. Fytton ..." which I thought made wonderful holiday reading. This one though I enjoyed because of the arty and architectural background but above all I identified with Audrey - I enjoy Cheek's unobtrusive feminism.

Other books I've read and enjoyed are: Sue Gee's "Hours of the Night, Jane Urquhart's "The Underpainter" and"The Stone Carvers", Mary Stanley's "Revenge",Jane Gardam "Faith Fox" and most of Anita Shreve's novels. Please let Mavis Cheek know there are a few intelligent readers out here thirsting for more. Thank you.

Disappointingly bad
I had heard something of Mavis Cheek and was looking forward to a wittily written story. Instead I got pages and pages of 'and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened.' The first rule of writing is 'show, don't tell' but obviously no one has ever pointed this out to Ms Cheek. As a result her characters are uninvolving and their lives flash before us in a series of lists detailing what happened without any sense of being involved in the process as a reader. I also became more and more annoyed by what I presume is a deliberate style. To put full stops in the middle of. Sentences in a totally arbitrary. Fashion. Annoying huh? The humour was laboured and, as with the bizarre punctuation, became increasingly annoying. All in all one to avoid.