Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2010
240 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Paperback Original. Its 2013 and 80-year-old Frances is sitting on the stairs of number three Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill, listening to the debt collectors pounding on her front door. World history has finally reached her doorstep!
"A rollicking story that may inspire readers to greener habits before the apocalypse." - Library Journal
"The sunny romanticism that made The Hearts and Lives of Men her most charming novel (and one set in a very similar milieu in Primrose Hill) is gone, and some readers will regret that. Nevertheless, it's a persuasive fable: sinister, clever, funny and vintage Weldon. Why hasn't she been made a Dame?" - The Independent (UK)
"One thing is sure about Chalcot Crescent: Fay Weldon's many followers may find it too alarming to love, but they are going to greatly admire it." - The Guardian (UK)
"Weldon has always been alert to the circular nature of key arguments. In Chalcot Crescent it is less a case of the personal being political than the other way around." - The Telegraph (UK)
"The helplessness of old age and the timelessness of the pain Frances has picked up on the way are poignant. Moving in and out of time zones is a good way to evoke this, but it comes at the expense of momentum." - The Spectator (UK)
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Ian Jones
English novelist and writer Weldon Fay, was born on 22nd September 1939 in Birmingham, UK. Her work tends to have strong feminist themes. Her grandfather, Edgar Jepson and her mother, Margaret were both writers. She studied at university in Scotland and returned to England after giving birth to a son. After afterwards she married Ronald Bateman who she left after two years of marriage. In order to support her son Weldon started working in advertising industry.
She later married Ron Weldon, and during her second pregnancy she began to write for radio and television. In 1967 she published her first novel, The Fat Woman's Joke, after that the next 30 years turned out to be very successful for her. She published over 20 novels, collections of short stories, films for television, ...
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