Description

The new novel from Salley Vickers, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Librarian

‘Heart-warming… Grandmothers is a beautifully written and moving celebration of this love, too often unsung, that reaches out across the generations’ The Times

Grandmothers is the story of three very different women and their relationship with the younger generation: fiercely independent Nan, who leads a secret life as an award-winning poet when she is not teaching her grandson Billy how to lie; glamorous Blanche, deprived of the company of her beloved granddaughter Kitty by her hostile daughter-in-law, who finds solace in rebelliously taking to drink and shop lifting; and shy, bookish Minna who in the safety of shepherd’s hut shares with her surrogate granddaughter Rose her passion for reading. The outlook of all three women subtly alters when through their encounters with each other they discover that the past is always with us and that we go on learning and changing until the very end.

Grandmothers is a beautifully observed, sometimes subversive, often tender and elegiac novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Librarian.

‘A fond portrait of what it is to love a child, both yours and not… a tonic for the overlooked modern grandmother’ Sunday Times

‘Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand. She’s a presence worth cherishing in the ranks of modern novelists’ Philip Pullman

Publisher Review

In exquisite prose, Salley Vickers explores the characters of three very different Grandmothers whose lives eventually converge. The characterisation is so vivid I feel as if I know them all and might be likely to enjoy a cup of tea and a chat with any one of them. This is a wonderfully heart-warming and tender story, a story to savour, a story that gets to the heart of this time of a woman's life that is so frequently ignored in fiction. As a grandmother myself, I loved it. -- Dinah Jefferies Gentle and charming * Saga * A poignant tale * The i * Vickers writes of relationships with undaunted clarity -- Adam Phillips An incisive exploration of the sweetly painful love that exists between generations * Mail on Sunday * No one can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as Vickers * Sunday Times * A fond portrait of what it is to love a child, both yours and not... a tonic for the overlooked modern grandmother * Sunday Times * A gentle, subtly autumnal tale...allows characters ample opportunity to reflect wisely on subjects including art, family and mortality * Daily Mail * Heart-warming...Grandmothers is a beautifully written and moving celebration of this love, too often unsung, that reaches out across the generations. It should be read by all grannies - so that's one Christmas present sorted * The Times *