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Gentleman and Ladies
Faith Lavender's funeral and the arrival of a stranger upsets the balance of Haverstock. Undercurrents of fierce emotion reach the surface, while the tensions rise and the ladies of Haverstock find their actions motivated by mutual suspicion and fear. By the author of Strange Meeting.
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First published January 1, 1968
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About the author
Susan Hill
180 books2,281 followersSusan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".
Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.
In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.
Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 18, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sw542Description: Faith Lavender's funeral and the arrival of a stranger upsets the balance of Haverstock. Undercurrents of fierce emotion reach the surface, while the tensions rise and the ladies of Haverstock find their actions motivated by mutual suspicion and fear. By the author of Strange Meeting.
1/5: The funeral of Faith Lavender, spinster of the parish, is attended by her family and friends and by one stranger - a man named Hubert Gaily, who never met Faith in his life... 
2/5: Friendship blossoms at the village laundrette, but will Ma Gaily approve? 3/5: The villagers of Haverstock look forward to the annual fete and the Gailys make an impression. 4/5: Storms break and accidents happen, but can the ladies of Haverstock cope with change?5/5: Friendship and family ties are tested as the villagers of Haverstock hear the sound of wedding bellsPatricia Hayes as Eleanor Thorne
Gwen Watford as Dorothea Shottery
Stephanie Cole as Alida Thorne
Sian Phillips as Isabel Lavender.
3* The Woman in Black
TR The Small Hand: A Ghost Story
MB Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading
2* The Mist in the Mirror
CR Gentleman and Ladies
2* A Kind Man
2* The Beacon
3* The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year
January 28, 2017
The blurb for this book and the covers make it sound like a cosy little village full of Miss Marples and we are to expect a murder or two. Could not be wider of the mark.
It's not a spoiler to say that we join the book with a funeral. This lady which we never meet is a force of personality in a small village. The book explores what happens to a small group of elderly ladies after the linchpin has been removed. It's a very honest, at times brutal exploration of mental health and old women, it touches on dementia, paranoia, anxiety and stress. Not only in the elderly but for those who care for them.
What makes it astonishing is that this book was written by a very young woman. Susan Hill ended up winning many awards for her ghost stories, it's a pity this one was never entered for anything and seems to have been lost to the status of "chance discovery in oxfam shops". The title was a mistake and the cover art has been a mistake right from the first edition, if any book were crying out for a properly marketed re-print then it's this one.
It's not a spoiler to say that we join the book with a funeral. This lady which we never meet is a force of personality in a small village. The book explores what happens to a small group of elderly ladies after the linchpin has been removed. It's a very honest, at times brutal exploration of mental health and old women, it touches on dementia, paranoia, anxiety and stress. Not only in the elderly but for those who care for them.
What makes it astonishing is that this book was written by a very young woman. Susan Hill ended up winning many awards for her ghost stories, it's a pity this one was never entered for anything and seems to have been lost to the status of "chance discovery in oxfam shops". The title was a mistake and the cover art has been a mistake right from the first edition, if any book were crying out for a properly marketed re-print then it's this one.
January 19, 2016
From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
The funeral of Faith Lavender, spinster of the parish, is attended by her family and friends and by one stranger - a man named Hubert Gaily, who never met Faith in his life...
2/5: Friendship blossoms at the village laundrette, but will Ma Gaily approve?
3/5: The villagers of Haverstock look forward to the annual fete and the Gailys make an impression.
4/5: Storms break and accidents happen, but can the ladies of Haverstock cope with change?
5/5: Friendship and family ties are tested as the villagers of Haverstock hear the sound of wedding bells
Susan Hill's novel of family ties, friendship and loneliness, set in the small Midland village of Haverstock.
Starring Patricia Hayes as Eleanor Thorne, Gwen Watford as Dorothea Shottery, Stephanie Cole as Alida Thorne and Sian Phillips as Isabel Lavender.
Adapted by Bill Matthews.
Music by Peter Salem
Producer: Lissa Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sw542
The funeral of Faith Lavender, spinster of the parish, is attended by her family and friends and by one stranger - a man named Hubert Gaily, who never met Faith in his life...
2/5: Friendship blossoms at the village laundrette, but will Ma Gaily approve?
3/5: The villagers of Haverstock look forward to the annual fete and the Gailys make an impression.
4/5: Storms break and accidents happen, but can the ladies of Haverstock cope with change?
5/5: Friendship and family ties are tested as the villagers of Haverstock hear the sound of wedding bells
Susan Hill's novel of family ties, friendship and loneliness, set in the small Midland village of Haverstock.
Starring Patricia Hayes as Eleanor Thorne, Gwen Watford as Dorothea Shottery, Stephanie Cole as Alida Thorne and Sian Phillips as Isabel Lavender.
Adapted by Bill Matthews.
Music by Peter Salem
Producer: Lissa Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1993.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sw542
October 6, 2020
I feel this a book is for those at least about 50 years or more. It’s a confronting story about growing old and for me living an unfulfilled life and death looms large. It’s about living for others instead of ourselves and the contempt that it creates. A couple of seemingly nasty woman but I did have empathy for them. I was 66 when my rather demanding mother passed away and although I loved her dearly I often wondered when my turn would come. Of course, this is down to the choices we make over the years., do we create co dependent relationships? This book was very poignant for me, it’s not an uplifting story but an important one
June 7, 2020
A beautiful, gentle story both sad and life affirming
September 25, 2016
In the books 'Afterword', Susan Hill describes Gentleman and Ladies as her 'favourite' work - she explains how she wrote her first published novel while still at school but then hit a literary detritus. Gentleman and Ladies was the light at end of this six year tunnel - completed in three months and readily accepted for publication; it marked her entrance into the world as 'proper writer' and is something of which is very proud.
Inspired by childhood sojourns to the Cotswolds and her life in genteel post-war Scarborough, Gentleman and Ladies is a quiet, assuming novel; full of quaint, old world descriptions and ministrations. It's characters are somewhat stereotyped and add to the pathos of a village 'being left behind'. Hill herself says that it is 'a sad book, about sad, restricted lives, shrinking horizons - or else, perhaps even sadder, horizons which have never expanded at all.' The novels characters are all confined to Haverstock village and confined within an unwritten code of polite social etiquette - they are sad and lonely and embittered; but unable to escape. So tightly are they bound that they have forgotten who they truly are and have left their dreams and ambitions far behind. The Lavender sisters believe one another mad, Alida resents her elderly mother, widowed Dorothea doesn't want to upset anyone and dear Hubert Gaily, already in his 50's, seeks escape and happiness with sweet Florence Ames under the watchful eye of his contrary mother. It really is a funny, mixed-up state of affairs and one which I enjoyed being swept up in for a few days.
Inspired by childhood sojourns to the Cotswolds and her life in genteel post-war Scarborough, Gentleman and Ladies is a quiet, assuming novel; full of quaint, old world descriptions and ministrations. It's characters are somewhat stereotyped and add to the pathos of a village 'being left behind'. Hill herself says that it is 'a sad book, about sad, restricted lives, shrinking horizons - or else, perhaps even sadder, horizons which have never expanded at all.' The novels characters are all confined to Haverstock village and confined within an unwritten code of polite social etiquette - they are sad and lonely and embittered; but unable to escape. So tightly are they bound that they have forgotten who they truly are and have left their dreams and ambitions far behind. The Lavender sisters believe one another mad, Alida resents her elderly mother, widowed Dorothea doesn't want to upset anyone and dear Hubert Gaily, already in his 50's, seeks escape and happiness with sweet Florence Ames under the watchful eye of his contrary mother. It really is a funny, mixed-up state of affairs and one which I enjoyed being swept up in for a few days.
March 22, 2023
A very engaging read. While others have compared it to the cosy books of Barbara Pym and others I felt it was much more than a cosy English village story. A thoughtful exploration of some of the issues confronting us as we age, told through snippets of the lives and interactions of the Lavender sisters (spinsters Faith, Isabelle and Kathleen), Alida and her mother, Dorothea, Hubert Gaily and his Ma, and Florence, Hubert's new romantic interest. Loneliness, illness, care-giving, duty, finances, mental health and death are topics covered, without being explicitly labelled. Despite this it is not bleak. I found it more uplifting than similar novels by authors such as Anita Brookner.
July 30, 2011
I do like Susan's Hill writing. For the past few years I've been reading as many of her books as I find, or am given. I enjoy her ghost stories and short stories, I haven't read so many of her novels yet. This is a great story, albeit a little depressing. Ma lifts the book at points where you really need to smile. She's a great character.
I found her Susan Hill's afterword regarding how she feels about now the book interesting.
I found her Susan Hill's afterword regarding how she feels about now the book interesting.
November 2, 2017
Soft, ordinary lives. beautifully written
May 27, 2024
A very early novel from Susan Hill written when she was just a young woman. This fascinates me as there is such an honesty in the work which seems to be written to resonate with a more mature audience in its themes of illness, death and dementia and the demands of family members on each other. Having trawled through biographical details of Hill's early life there is nothing to suggest she had personal experiences which she was then able to channel into this early work. It is therefore doubly impressive that she was able to write such a convincing account of older lives.
Quite a depressing read at times as one approaches their later years however there is also humour particularly in the winderful character of Ma.
The novel concludes satisfactorily with happier moments for some of the remaining characters eg a wedding for two and a recovery from illness for one of two friends. There is however still a sense that death always lurks somewhere in the shadows.
Quite a depressing read at times as one approaches their later years however there is also humour particularly in the winderful character of Ma.
The novel concludes satisfactorily with happier moments for some of the remaining characters eg a wedding for two and a recovery from illness for one of two friends. There is however still a sense that death always lurks somewhere in the shadows.
May 23, 2023
A quiet, slightly old-fashioned sort of novel that I greatly enjoyed. I wouldn't call it a "literary" novel, it doesn't have an unreliable narrator, it doesn't try to link two or three completely unconnected people from different countries and eras, it doesn't feature a central character who is, guess what, a writer who lives in Highgate or Hampstead. And all the better for it.
Instead we have a central group of four middle-aged or elderly women in a small village, one of whom is a widow and two of whom are sisters. The novel begins with the funeral of a third sister, which is also attended accidentally by an unmarried middle-aged man on his day off, who happens to be looking round the churchyard when the cortege arrives, and is too embarrassed to leave so follows them into the church and sits discreetly at the back.
The man lives with his mother, a memorable no-nonsense sort of character, about twenty miles away. After the funeral the women speculate on who the man might be. One observes disapprovingly that he was wearing boots, not shoes. I was reminded of the female community of Mrs Gaskell's "Cranford" as the central characters are carefully drawn and differentiated by Susan Hill, revealing elements of snobbishness, intolerance, fear of illness and dementia, but also kindness and concern.
The man forms a romantic friendship with a woman who is a good friend of the kindest of the circle of four older women, and so comes back into their orbit. From there the story plays out beautifully.
Warmly recommended to readers who like character development rather than plot or action.
Instead we have a central group of four middle-aged or elderly women in a small village, one of whom is a widow and two of whom are sisters. The novel begins with the funeral of a third sister, which is also attended accidentally by an unmarried middle-aged man on his day off, who happens to be looking round the churchyard when the cortege arrives, and is too embarrassed to leave so follows them into the church and sits discreetly at the back.
The man lives with his mother, a memorable no-nonsense sort of character, about twenty miles away. After the funeral the women speculate on who the man might be. One observes disapprovingly that he was wearing boots, not shoes. I was reminded of the female community of Mrs Gaskell's "Cranford" as the central characters are carefully drawn and differentiated by Susan Hill, revealing elements of snobbishness, intolerance, fear of illness and dementia, but also kindness and concern.
The man forms a romantic friendship with a woman who is a good friend of the kindest of the circle of four older women, and so comes back into their orbit. From there the story plays out beautifully.
Warmly recommended to readers who like character development rather than plot or action.
July 26, 2021
Reminded me of Barbara Pym novels, village life, older ladies.
The storyline jumped about a bit in places and was a bit confusing here and there, but a well written and enjoyable book overall.
I wouldn't agree with the author that it was a sunny book though, I found it very melancholy, but I would agree it was a "sad book about sad restrictive lives" with a little humour along the way.
The storyline jumped about a bit in places and was a bit confusing here and there, but a well written and enjoyable book overall.
I wouldn't agree with the author that it was a sunny book though, I found it very melancholy, but I would agree it was a "sad book about sad restrictive lives" with a little humour along the way.
December 18, 2021
If you want a slow moving snapshot in time of a traditional English village, this is for you. The gentle tale of the lives of a small group of friends is insightful and at times amusing, but overall I didn’t find the novel very engaging and I felt it might have benefitted from a tighter structure and faster pace.
October 25, 2020
Quite an early Susan Hill, a good read, not at all ghostly or a detective story. Instead it was almost like a Barbara Pym novel, about a group of older people and their relationships. It dealt well with families and responsibility, and was well observed. Somehow slightly depressing though.
December 6, 2024
Susan Hill has written an excellent book, going back slightly in time to the 1960s, and explores closely the feelings of a small range of characters who live in a rural village, and are loosely connected. Great analysis.
November 7, 2020
I love Susan Hill's books but this one was a bit too depressing for the moment. I need something more uplifting during this 2nd covid lock down. I might read it again during happier times.
August 28, 2023
A haunting portrayal of old age, death and the loneliness that lives amongst people, nonetheless an astonishing tale of survival, humanity and the quest to be happy despite anything.
April 27, 2024
Probably my favourite Susan Hill book. Think I'll go back to this again & again. Her storytelling is pristine in this one.
August 25, 2024
Not in the right place to read this currently
November 1, 2025
old people shenanigans
June 27, 2013
Someone had this from the library because they had seen it advertised in the back of a Dodie Smith novel -- which is, by the by, a fascinating way of discovering new books and lost authors, picking up things that were advertised in the past and seeing what they are like. But as it turns out, Susan Hill is not lost at all, I simply had not heard of her. This is her second novel, from 1968, about a group of middle-aged women in a village in the aftermath of a death. It is an odd book, I think; the story is told in little vignettes, there is no real protagonist and not much of a plot in the traditional sense. Things happen, certainly, but lines of cause & effect are not drawn between them. I began reading it expecting something charming and a little twee, like the Angela Thirkell books my sister likes so much, but no, while this is not deep, it was more layered than I anticipated, and quite enjoyable. I think I will read more by this author.
July 31, 2011
A small village, some middle-aged and elderly women each with their own crosses to bear and a lot of time on their hands! A gentle novel in which very little of note happens but what does is not missed behind the twitching curtains! A reading group book which I wouldn't have picked up in a hundred years! Not intolerable, for all that.
June 7, 2012
The characters completely failed to engage me, so I gave up on this one.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews