The Penultimate Chance Saloon – a TOG story!

A couple of weeks ago I read an article in the Guardian which told of a book group chaired by Edwina Curry and held at Nightingale House, a care home in South London. As someone that has never attended a book group the article intrigued me, especially when reading about the views of some elderly women (all the ones in the article seem to be 90+!) on contemporary fiction.

In the featured book group meeting the author Simon Brett was present to hear the group discussing his novel The Penultimate Chance Saloon. The article finished with a list of books that the group had recently discussed and after seeing a few books that I had read and enjoyed on the list I decided to try a few others to see if they were of a similar standard.

I ordered a few from Amazon.co.uk and coincidently the first to arrive was the Penultimate Chance Saloon. I have to say that I really enjoyed this book very much, although it was also a very quick read (started and finished in the weekend!). Simon Brett tells the story of Bill Stratton, a man on the verge of his sixtieth birthday and suddenly finding himself single after nearly forty years of marriage. We hear of his dating experience, told in such a way that I could imagine Terry Wogan telling his TOG listeners all about Bill’s experiences!

The general style of Simon Brett’s writing reminded me quite a bit of David Lodge, another author that I greatly enjoyed.

I’ll certainly be seeking out more of Brett’s work, but in the meantime the second package has arrived from Amazon containing three other titles from the groups reading list. I’m looking forwards to seeing if these match up to the same high enjoyment level!