Customer Reviews
Gentle Lampoon on England - By: fields21, 06 Jun 2003 
Very charming read. Mortimer's gentle lampoon on England & many of his classic characters (country doctor, Parish Rector, new Tory, landed gentry) is a brilliant satire & a hilarious read. Combined with a nice plot & great characters it is a very nice read indeed. Character are instantly recognisable.
All abbout the decline of one & the rise of another family, linked through the Simcox family. Lots of twisting & turning some tragedy & a lot of hilarious situations.
Well crafted novel in the British tradition of gentle, but biting satire of English country life 1945 - 1985. On par with some of Waugh/Wodehouse/Somerset Maugham in my view.
If you liked the TV mini-series, you'll love the tape! - By: , 12 Jun 2000 
The book is good fun with considerable bite. Even as an American, I could relate to the author's lampoon of English society & politics. I use this tape as accompaniment to exercise sessions & have listened to it some half dozen times without feeling bored or impatient. The reader, Paul Shelley, who also played Fred Simcox (the younger son) in the mini-series, obviously feels a good deal of affection for the characters, & manages to convey this affection to the listener. As always, his delivery is clear, nuanced, without annoying mannersims, & each character is endowed with his own voice & personality so that the listener can drop in at any point & identify the person on whose conversation he is eavesdropping without waiting for him to be identified by the author. I heartily recommend this audiobook to anyone who needs a tape that he can listen to multiple times.
