Time gentlemen! Time!

by Norah Hoult

Time Gentleman! Time! (published as Closing Hour in the US) is Miss Norah Hoult's first complete novel. She began it before the publication of her first work Poor Women, which won for her so immediate a success. The scope of Time Gentleman! Time! lies within a few days in the life of an Irish solicitor named Carmichael, who lives in a London suburb with his wife and two children. Owing partly to the habit he has acquired of drinking to excess his practice is on its last legs; and his family is shown facing destitution. The climax comes when, one night after hearing of his closest friend's death, Carmichael is touched with the hand of the law. The story is a fine study of one of those who, in the phrase of the poet, T.M. Kettle, "have not lived as wisely as the rest."

314 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Norah ‘Ella’ Hoult was born in Dublin in 1898. Her mother, Margaret O’Shaughnessy, was a spirited Irish-Catholic girl who eloped with a Protestant English architect named Powis Hoult when she was 21. After Norah and her brother were orphaned they were sent to live with their father’s relations in England, where they went to school. Norah Hoult was a journalist for the Sheffield Daily Telegraph and then moved to London to work on a magazine, becoming a full-time writer after her first book, Poor Women (1928), was published. She lived in Dublin from 1931-7 (and was briefly married to a quantity surveyor) and then in New York; in 1939 she settled in London, living in Bayswater, not far from Violet Hunt upon whom Claire Temple in There Were No Windows (1944) is modelled. Between 1928 and 1972 she published twenty-five books; in 1957 she returned to live in Ireland, and died there in 1984.

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly depressing portrait of an abusive alcoholic and his estranged wife, but a quick and compelling read nonetheless. Norah Hoult was simply brilliant at characterization and I look forward to reading more of her work.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fabulous book by one of my favourite authors