Author:Penelope Lively

Perfect Happinessis the fifth novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively
Frances, happily married for many years, and suddenly plunged into mourning. Her international celebrity husband Steve has died leaving her unprepared and vulnerable. At first she is completely submerged in her own loss until, shocked into feeling by the unexpected revelations and private sufferings of others, she is drawn agonizingly into new life - not into perfect happiness but into the sunlight of new hope. Penelope Lively's moving and beautifully observed novel illuminates two terrifying taboos of the twentieth-century - death and grief.
'A triumph' Spectator
'Under the heat and the hammering of bombs, Rinaldi paints the essence of the Second World War in exciting miniature'
—— David Hughes , Mail on Sunday'Much to enjoy...Rinaldi has tremendous fun evoking the rich cultural pudding that was Malta in 1942, its weird combination of superstition, fatalism and grafted-on anglophilia, of ricotta and stiff upper lip'
—— Patrick Gale , Daily Telegraph'Funny, romantic, disturbing...A marvellous tapestry of war...Moving and satisfying'
—— The New York Times'A beguiling, romantic story in an illuminating and surprising setting'
—— Joseph HellerThis is Elton at his best - mature, humane, and still a laugh a minute. At least
—— Daily TelegraphOnly Ben Elton could combine uncomfortable questions about gender politics with a gripping, page-turning narrative and jokes that make you laugh out loud
—— Tony ParsonsA very funny book about a sensitive subject ... Ben Elton the writer might even be funniter than Ben Elton the comic
—— Daily MailThe selections from the greats are generous and well chosen
—— Guardian






