This consummate portrait of English provincial life, an extremely subtle story, told with all Middleton’s artistry and depth of feeling, was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1974.
Edwin Fisher is on holiday at the English seaside — but this revisiting of childhood haunts is no ordinary holiday. Edwin is seeking to understand the failure of his marriage to Meg, but it turns out that her parents are staying at the same resort — whether by accident or design — and are keen to patch up the relationship. As the past and his enigmatic wife loom larger, deeper truths emerge and the perspective shifts in unexpected ways.
Review
Praise for Stanley Middleton:
“As with everything Middleton writes, a great deal rustles beneath the surface.” — Guardian on Brief Garlands
“Middleton strips away the surface of people’s lives, revealing complexities which in real life we prefer to keep hidden.” — Scotsman on Sterner Stuff
“At first glance, or even at second, Stanley Middleton’s world is easily recognizable. . . . The excellence of art, for Middleton, is an exact vision of real things as they are. And because he is himself so exact an observer, his world at third glance can seem strange and disturbing or newly and brilliantly lit with colour.” — A.S. Byatt
About the Author
Stanley Middleton lives in Nottingham, where most of his novels are set. Holiday is being simultaneously reissued with Her Three Wise Men for the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize.
Description:
This consummate portrait of English provincial life, an extremely subtle story, told with all Middleton’s artistry and depth of feeling, was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1974.
Edwin Fisher is on holiday at the English seaside — but this revisiting of childhood haunts is no ordinary holiday. Edwin is seeking to understand the failure of his marriage to Meg, but it turns out that her parents are staying at the same resort — whether by accident or design — and are keen to patch up the relationship. As the past and his enigmatic wife loom larger, deeper truths emerge and the perspective shifts in unexpected ways.
Review
Praise for Stanley Middleton:
“As with everything Middleton writes, a great deal rustles beneath the surface.” — Guardian on Brief Garlands
“Middleton strips away the surface of people’s lives, revealing complexities which in real life we prefer to keep hidden.” — Scotsman on Sterner Stuff
“At first glance, or even at second, Stanley Middleton’s world is easily recognizable. . . . The excellence of art, for Middleton, is an exact vision of real things as they are. And because he is himself so exact an observer, his world at third glance can seem strange and disturbing or newly and brilliantly lit with colour.” — A.S. Byatt
About the Author
Stanley Middleton lives in Nottingham, where most of his novels are set. Holiday is being simultaneously reissued with Her Three Wise Men for the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize.