Going Gently by David Nobbs
A combination of a very unusual detective story and an epic story of the life of a nearly 100 year old woman.
I got this book with another of Nobbs’ books for 50p from the library when they were having a clear out. I loved Reginald Perrin on TV (which he also wrote), but I hadn’t read any of his books before. This story is — in part — a very unusual detective story, in which the detective is a woman (Kate Copson) a few days away from her 100th birthday, lying in hospital and paralysed by a severe stroke. As she lies there — unable to move or speak, but still able to think very clearly — she tries to work out which of her three sons murdered her fifth husband.
In the process, Kate thinks back over her long life, reliving her relationships. A feisty, witty, intelligent woman, she has clocked up around six marriages, depending on how you count re-marriages to the same man. She’s a very warm sympathetic person, and the surrounding characters are also drawn with great affection and depth. Kate was born in South Wales, so the novel is also a wonderful evocation of her very religious, Chapel-going parents, and the sociable, death-obsessed community in that area. The book is by turns funny, moving and sad, and after about half way through, I found it hard to put down.
Good job we're not all the same!…