Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Helen Simonson

An excellent feel good read! Major Pettigrew is a delightful character struggling to tolerate his meddling village neighbours and his overbearing son and their prejudices. When his brother dies, he finds himself increasingly drawn to Mrs Ali, the village shopkeeper and falls in love to the consternation of his friends and family. A book to keep you smiling, as Major Pettigrew, always the gentleman, confounds everyone and wins through!

Extract
Two days passed before it occurred to the Major that Mrs Ali had not called in to check on him and that this had caused him a certain disappointment. The paper boy was quite well again, judging by the ferocity with which the Times was thrown at his front door. He had had his share of other visitors. Alice Pierce from next door had come round yesterday with a hand-painted condolence card and a casserole dish of what she said was her famous organic vegetarian lasagna and informed him that it was all over the village that he had lost his brother.There was enough of the pale brown and green mush to feed an army of organic vegetarian friends. Unfortunately, he did not have the same kind of vegetarian friends as Alice and so the dish was now fermenting in his refrigerator, spreading its unpleasant plankton smell into the milk and butter. Today, Daisy Green, the Vicar's wife, dropped by unnanounced with her usual entourage of Alma Shaw and Grace DeVere from the Flower Guild and insisted on making him a cup of tea in his own house.
Parallels
  • The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer