Killing Time: A Sunday Times Bestselling 'pitch-perfect' (Observer) treat for winter.

by Alan Bennett

Genres: Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.

Reviews

[Andrew Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok, a quick read with plenty of flashes of amusement in places, set in a care home Hill Topp, at the beginning of the covid lockdowns, although you are well over halfway through the story before that happens. it concentrates on setting out the character of the residents of the care home, all ancient, most trying desperately to keep their marbles. The blurb makde me think it was a sort of Garndpa's great escape for grown ups but its much more detailed and wryly funny from the deadpan reactions of the carers to one persons repeated behaviour, to the snobbery sent in the diection of a rival care home Low Moor, indeed just the wordplay suggests this straight away. pretty decent but the ending was a bit rushed.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick and easy read. Set during Covid in a care home; the very classy council run Hill Top, lords it over Low Moor.
Bennett is the master of wry comment and observation particularly the quirks of old age. Not by any means a a masterpiece, but very empathetic enjoyable….provided you’re not in a care home during a pandemic.

[Trevor Vick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely understated humour around senior citizens waiting in the departure lounge of their north country residential care home during Covid. The entitlement displayed when they made their disparaging remarks about the residents of a lesser-regarded care home down the road was priceless. The fact that the audio book was actually read by Alan Bennett was an absolute bonus.

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on the fence about this. It felt a bit flippant in the face of what we went through during the pandemic but hey, I'm only in my fifties. Hopefully not nursing home bound just yet. There are some moments that made my chuckle so it's a three and a half rather than a four.

[Molly Cooper Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

"'What else do you miss besides the pictures?'
'I forget.'
'People?'
'No. I miss the sea.'
'The sea?'
'Coming in and going out.'"

"Arthritis permitting, they scampered."

[Stephen Power · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little cozy catastrophe.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you'd expect from Alan Bennett, this is entertaining and perfectly observed.

[Lisa Glanville · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I’d realised he was the author of The Lady in the Van, I wouldn’t have picked this up.
They’re both bloody awful.

[Elisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit boring tbh