The Lady in the Van
by Bennett, Alan
- Used
- Acceptable
- Paperback
- Condition
- Acceptable
- ISBN 10
- 1873092008
- ISBN 13
- 9781873092002
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
The London Review of Books, 1990. Paperback. Acceptable. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Reviews
On Mar 13 2017, a reader said:
The Lady in the Van is a true story by British author, Alan Bennett. Essentially, it is an account of his interactions, over some twenty years, with the elderly Miss Shepherd, a homeless woman whose van was parked, at first in his street opposite his house, then later, in his front garden. Not until after she died, did Bennett learn very much at all about this secretive, opinionated, demanding old lady.
Entries often read thus: "April 1989. A staple of Miss S.'s shopping list these days is sherbet lemons. I have a stock of them in the house, but she insists I invest in yet more so that a perpetual supply of sherbet lemons may never be in doubt. 'I'm on them now. I don't want to have to go off them.' I asked her if she would like a cup of coffee. 'Well, I wouldn't want you to go to all that trouble. I'll just have half a cup.'"
It was after her death that Bennett finally ventured inside the van: "…I realised I had to grit my teeth (or hold my nose) and go through Miss Shepherd's possessions.
To do the job properly would have required a team of archaeologists. Every surface was covered in layers of old clothes, frocks, blankets and accumulated papers, some of them undisturbed for years, and all lying under a crust of ancient talcum powder. Sprinkled impartially over wet slippers, used incontinence pads and half-eaten tins of baked beans, it was of a virulence that supplemented rather than obliterated the distinctive odour of the van. The narrow aisle between the two banks of seats where Miss Shepherd had knelt, prayed and slept was trodden six inches deep in sodden debris, on which lay a top dressing of old food, Mr Kipling cakes, wrinkled apples, rotten oranges and everywhere batteries – batteries loose, batteries in packets, batteries that had split and oozed black gum on to the prehistoric sponge cakes and ubiquitous sherbet lemons that they lay among"
The cover of this edition shows Maggie Smith as she portrayed Miss Shepherd in the movie of the same title, and also has a postscript written in 1994. Very entertaining.
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Details
- Bookseller
- ThriftBooks (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- G1873092008I5N00
- Title
- The Lady in the Van
- Author
- Bennett, Alan
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Acceptable
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 1873092008
- ISBN 13
- 9781873092002
- Publisher
- The London Review of Books
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1990
Terms of Sale
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Glossary
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- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Acceptable
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