Paradise Lodge: Hilarity and pure escapism from a true British wit

Description

A riotous celebration of being very young and very old - and the laughter and the tears in between This is the story of Lizzie Vogel, a 15 year old girl who finds herself working in an old people's home in the 1970s. The place is in chaos and it's not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl- she'd only gone for the job because it seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk, and she doesn't realise there is a right and a wrong way to get someone out of a bath. Through a cast of wonderful characters, from the assertively shy Nurse who only communicates via little grunts to the very attractive son of the Chinese take away manager, Paradise Lodge is the story of being very young, and very old, and the laughter, and the tears, in between.

Nina Stibbe was born in Leicester. She is the author of two works of non-fiction - Love, Nina and An Almost Perfect Christmas - and three previous novels- Man at the Helm, Paradise Lodge, and Reasons to be Cheerful, which is the only novel to have won both the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and the Comedy Women in Print Award. Love, Nina won Non-Fiction Book of the Year and was adapted by Nick Hornby into a BBC TV series. Nina Stibbe lives in Cornwall.

LOVE it! Instant classic - funny, wise, touching, entirely delightful -- Marian Keyes A new Nina Stibbe?! Best day ever -- Emma Healey The funniest new writer to arrive in years -- Andrew O'Hagan The one problem with reviewing Stibbe is that I just want to quote entire pages: it's all so brilliant. She captures exactly what it's like to be a teenager, with all its contradictions, confusions, anxieties and ambitions. * The i * There is a laugh out loud moment in every chapter. Paradise Lodge brilliantly captures the internal panic of a teenager -- Kathy Burke A touch of Holden Caulfield in 1970s Leicestershire... I wouldn't mind fetching up at Paradise Lodge when my time comes: at least we'd all share a laugh, a hug and a terrible cup of tea before the dying of the light. -- Lee Langley * Spectator * There is never a dull moment in this lively, sensitive, roaringly funny tale * Daily Express * Stibbe looks at another chapter of her life through the prism of her trademark deadpan, acutely observed humour * Stylist * Irreverent, warm and hugely entertaining * Daily Mail * The whole book surprises and impresses... I'm not surprised to see that Stibbe's writing has been compared to Jane Austen's -- Emma Healey * Guardian * Stibbe is a terrific writer with a gift for sharp dialogue * Evening Standard * Laugh-out-loud funny and full of spot-on 1970s details * Good Housekeeping * Stibbe is herself becoming a worthy successor to Pym, that peerless chronicler of the melancholy pleasures and small struggles of 20th-century English life on the sort of days when, as Lizzie puts it, "there was nothing for lunch except ginger cake and tins of marrowfat peas * Financial Times * Winsomely naive yet confident * Sunday Times * Witty and thoroughly chortle inducing * The Lady * A dollop of nostalgia and very British humour * Glamour * Warm, funny story * Elle *