Three Stories 'Father! Father! Burning Bright', 'the Clothes They Stood Up In', 'the Laying on of Hands
By Alan Bennett
2003
First Published
3.82
Average Rating
222
Number of Pages
Here are Alan Bennett's hugely admired, triumphantly reviewed and bestselling novellas, brought together in one book for the first Father! Father! Burning Bright, the savage satire on a dying man's family reaction as he still asserts control over them from the hospital bed. Over 60,000 sold in small format. The Clothes They Stood Up In, has sold over 200,000 copies as a small novella and was 14 weeks in the Bestseller lists. It is the painful story of what happens to an elderly couple when their flat is stripped completely bare. The Laying on of Hands, a memorial service for a masseur to the famous that goes horribly wrong. Over 100,000 copies sold as a novella. Like everything Alan Bennett does, these stories are playful, witty and painfully observant of ordinary people's foibles. And they all have a brilliant and surprising twist; are immensely funny and profoundly moral.
Avg Rating
3.82
Number of Ratings
152
5 STARS
20%
4 STARS
45%
3 STARS
32%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
Alan Bennett
Author · 49 books
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
