Description
It's never too late to grow old disgracefully...
The life of 79-year-old pensioner Peggy Smart is as beige as the décor in her retirement village. Her week revolves around aqua aerobics and appointments with her doctor. The highlight of Peggy's day is watching her neighbour Brian head out for his morning swim.
Peggy dreams of inviting the handsome widower - treasurer of the Residents' Committee and one of the few eligible men in the village - to an intimate dinner. But why would an educated man like Brian, a chartered accountant no less, look twice at Peggy? As a woman of a certain age, she fears she has become invisible, even to men in their eighties.
But a chance encounter with an old school friend she hasn't seen in five decades - the glamorous fashionista Angie Valentine - sets Peggy on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.
Can she channel her 'inner Helen Mirren' and find love and friendship in her twilight years?
Review
Due to the title, I began this book thinking it was going to be set in South America, one of the native regions for the plant. As I began to read and references were made to Woolworths - I thought it was in the UK. Not until I was a good way through did it become apparent that it was in fact set in Australia! I now know that Coles is a famous Australian department store - but I thought it was a made up name for the book!
Anyway, it just goes to show the similarities between the UK and life down under in retirement villages and peoples perceptions - I did think they were brave going to the seaside lol! It also turns out that the author is a GP who grew up in the UK and now lives in Australia. This probably accounts for the sympathetic Dr who takes over at the retirement village and finally Peggy can reveal her hidden secret.
This was such a gentle, funny book and I couldn't wait to get back to it each time to read some more. Peggy has a great turn of phrase and her internal dialogue had be chuckling along. Peggy is maybe getting a little confused in her later years but only as much as could be expected. However, her children have other ideas and she dreads the day when they take her for the "car ride" from which she never returns to her little unit. Peggy has after all seen it happen all too many times before to other residents.
The rivalry between everyone (well the ladies) at the Retirement village for the eligible men was very entertaining. With a "will they won't they" theme running through the book, as Peggy wonders if it's all worth it anymore at her age. Then there is Angie Valentine the glamorous old school friend, Peggy finds she has moved into the village after not seeing her for many years. Is she a new rival?
There is some back story throughout to times when Peggy and Angie were school girls and then at their first job working together. Peggy always thought she was the underdog in their friendship - will that be still true all these years later, especially when Angie decides to take her in hand and give her a makeover.
A delightful read, I loved every second of it. I'm giving the book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a ARC to review.
Thanks Lynn - I just read this and loved it! Di xx
ReplyDelete