![]() ![]() ![]() But Taylor, though ruthlessly observant, also delights in exploring the trivial banalities of everyday life. 'Elizabeth Taylor's exquisitely drawn character study of eccentricity in old age is a sharp and witty portrait of genteel postwar English life facing the changes taking shape in the 60s. The Claremont symbolises a class and a way of life heading for the dustbin of history. Then one day Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unlikely friendship with an impoverished young writer, Ludo, who sees her as inspiration for his novel. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper. Elizabeth Taylor’s final and most popular novel is as unsparing as it is, ultimately, heartbreaking. Before she knows it, in fact, she tries something else. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Palfrey prides herself on having always known the right thing to do, but in this new situation she discovers that resource is much reduced. On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Named by the Guardian as one of 'the 100 best novels, ' and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont is a humorous and compassionate look at friendship between an old woman and a young man from a 'magnificent.writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike' (David Baddiel, Independent) ![]()
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