"One rainy Sunday in January Mrs Palfrey, recently widowed, arrives at the Claremont Hotel in the Cromwell Road. Here she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are a magnificently eccentric group who live off crumbs of affection, obsessive interest in the relentless round of hotel meals, and undying curiosity. There is Mrs Burton with her mauve rinsed hair, her costume jewelery and her drinking; Mrs Arbuthnot, bossy and arthritic; Mr Osmond with his risque stories, his endless stream of letters to the press. Together, upper lips stiffened, teeth gritted, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the grim Reaper. And then one day Mrs Palfrey encounters the handsome young writer, Ludo, and we learn that even the old can fall in love....."
As with Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor's novels and stories are painted on a small canvas, a group of people in one place and a needle sharp winkling out of their insecurities, thoughts and feelings. I picked this up in a second hand book shop (where else?) and took it home, entranced by the cover. I am sure Virago are fed up with us all banging on about the Green jackets but I bought this purely and simply because it was Green, and discovered a wonderful writer. Another edition and I would probably not have given it a glance and that would have been my loss. A wonderful story.
The painting is by Margaret Foreman and is a portrait of Mrs Mabel Whitehead. My apologies to Mrs Whitehead but this will always be Mrs Palfrey to me.
