Product Description

An eccentric old lady moves into a quiet street in Camden Town. There she remains, installed in her van in glorious self-sufficiency, until the council instructs her to move on. A kind homeowner invites her to move her van into his garden. A bizarre tale in itself, but when the homeowner is writer Alan Bennett and the lady stays for 15 years, it's a tale that provides the raw material for a book and a stage play. This is the fascinating story of Miss Shepherd, the genteel vagrant who found a unique place in Alan Bennett's life and writing. Adapted from his stage play and directed by Gordon House, this new version stars Maggie Smith, Alan Bennett and Adrian Scarborough. 'Truly brilliant and totally unmissable' - "Radio Times".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12822 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-04
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

Amazon.co.uk Review
Life imitates art in The Lady in the Van, the story of the itinerant Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van in Alan Bennett's driveway from the early1970s until her death in 1989. It is doubtful that Bennett could have made up the eccentric Miss Shepherd if he tried, but his poignant, funny but unsentimental account of their strange relationship is akin to his best fictional screen writing.

Bennett concedes that "One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation", but as the plastic bags build up, the years pass by and Miss Shepherd moves into Bennett's driveway, a relationship is established which defines a certain moment in late 20th-century London life which has probably gone forever. The dissenting, liberal, middle-class world of Bennett and his peers comes into hilarious but also telling collision with the world of Miss Shepherd: "there was a gap between our social position and our social obligations. It was in this gap that Miss Shepherd (in her van) was able to live".

Bennett recounts Miss Shepherd's bizarre escapades in his inimitable style, from her letter to the Argentinean Embassy at the height of the Falklands War, to her attempts to stand for Parliament and wangle an electric wheelchair out of the Social Services. Beautifully observed, The Lady in the Van is as notable for Bennett's attempts to uncover the enigmatic history of Miss Shepherd, as it is for its amusing account of her eccentric escapades. --Jerry Brotton

From the Publisher
Great reviews of The Lady in the Van
‘Alan Bennett has turned his funny, rueful diary about the eccentric Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van in his drive for 15 years, into a funny, rueful play. … The play contrasts the duties of life and the demands of art, and, although the writing is often richly comic, this is also sad and thought-provoking. … This is, without doubt, the best new play of the year.’ Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

‘Bennett’s writing is nimble, ironical, cruel and humane … gives the West End one of its saddest, funniest and most distinguished offerings for years.’ John Peter, Sunday Times

‘We have, in the nick of wonderfully bittersweet comic diary of the years in which a lethally dotty and very smelly old bat parked her unroadworthy vehicle in Bennett’s Camden garden, thereby providing him with a roughly equal amount of good journalistic copy and guilty landlordly irritation.’ Sheridan Morley, The Spectator

Customer Reviews

An amazing work of non-fiction
'The Lady in the Van' is a completely true story. In the 1970's and 1980's outside Alan Bennett's own house in Camden an old lady (Miss Shepherd) lived in a Van in the street. After a time she could no longer stay on the street. Amazingly Bennett allowed her to move her Van into his garden and there she remained until she died.

This is a remarkable story, and its one of the funniest yet moving pieces of writing that I have ever read. Bennett is a marvellous observer of people and his humanity shines through. Miss Shephard's living conditions were frankly disgusting (just think of the smell) and this would be enough to put most people off having any contact with her at all.

Bennett here has written one of the finest works of moving and poignant non-fiction I know of.

Both funny and sad
The story of how Mr Shepherd ended up in Alan Bennett's drive, and how she lived her life their until her eventual death, is both funny, and also in parts sad. Although very short, this book is well worth it, and highly recommended.

Miss Shepard Desert Fox
For fifteen years this arch Tory lived in a van in Bennets driveway. We must laugh at the rubbing on of Bells whiskey, the fright Bennett got when he thought she was going to camp on his Yorkshire doorstep. We must wonder what went on in Miss Shepard's mind as she talked of "this land" and "her pencils". During this time Bennett realises that Miss Shepard is not to different from the rest of us as she too has all the usless items for living that we never use. We must pause as she nears the end of her life. And at the end you feel he quite liked her and she him. I know I did. She may be in an unmarked Islington grave but she is remembered.