The Waiting Game

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.

Bernice Rubens was born in Wales & later read English at the University of Wales. In 1970 she won the Booker Prize for THE ELECTED MEMBER. A FIVE YEAR SENTENCE was also nominated for the award. 2 books have been filmed, I SENT A LETTER TO MY LOVE and MADAME SOUSATZKA, & MR WAKEFIELD'S CRUSADE was made into a TV series.

'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