The Common Years

Description

Life, dogs, nature, and scurrilous gossip - all on the edge of Putney Common. During the ten years she lived at the edge of Putney Common Jilly Cooper walked daily on this expanse of green. For most of the time she lived there she kept a diary, noting the effects of the changing seasons and writing about her encounters with dogs and humans. The book is a distillation of those diaries- an affectionate and enthralling portrait - warts and all - of life on Putney Common. Never has Jilly Cooper written more lyrically about flowers, trees, birds and the natural world; more tellingly about the sorrows - as well as the joys - of caring for dogs and children; or more outrageously about the gossip, illicit romances and jealousies of life in a small community.

Jilly Cooper is a journalist, author and media superstar. The author of many number one bestselling novels, she lives in Gloucestershire with her rescue racing greyhound, Bluebell. She has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Gloucestershire and Anglia Ruskin, and won the inaugural Comedy Women in Print lifetime achievement award in 2019. She was appointed CBE in 2018 for services to literature and charity.

Miss Cooper's life is a curiously endearing mixture of Joyce Grenfell and August Strindberg - endlessly gracious neighbourly occasions undercut and made bearable by a home life of wonderfully chaotic neurosis and catastrophes - highlighted by sudden and marvellous insights into neighbours and former friends -- Sheridan Morley An entrancing book -- Lynda Lee-Potter * Daily Mail * A brilliant and beloved book and absolutely unputdownable -- Elizabeth Longford So observant... a delightful book -- Valerie Singleton * Daily Express *