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A Certain Age
From the bestselling author of 'Eats Shoots & Leaves', a wonderfully funny collection of twelve monologues.
- GenresHumorShort Stories
210 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2005
2 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Lynne Truss
113 books1,002 followersLynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 29, 2018
A mixed bag of monologues, some more surprising, and some more likable, than others - just like their narrators.
December 9, 2015
Brilliant...bloody brilliant. Witty, heart-breaking without resorting to emotional manipulation.
July 7, 2018
“A Certain Age: Twelve Monologues from the Classic Radio Series” by Lynne Truss
12 deeply moving fictional monologues from plain, ordinary humans, whose stories highlight just how extraordinary our personal experiences truly are. Humourous, bitter-sweet, emotional.
I came across it after searching for material from Peter Capaldi. His take on Andy 'The Husband' is so good. Coincidentally, my name is Andy and I am also aged 42 (as are all 12 characters in this series, a certain age). 'The Brother' and 'The Son' are worth returning to more than once. *****
The Brother…………………………….Simon Russell Beale
The Wife…………………………………Janine Duvitski
The Son………………………………….Robert Glenister
The Mother ……………………………..Siobhan Redmond
The Father……………………………….Douglas Hodge
The Daughter……………………………Rebecca Front
The Married Man………………………..Stuart Milligan
The Sister………………………………..Lindsey Coulson
The Husband…………………………….Peter Capaldi
The Other Woman……………………..Lesley Manville
The Pedant………………………………Stephen Tompkinson
The Cat Lover…………………………..Dawn French
“I felt trapped. What are you supposed to do when they cry? I mean, I know it sounds selfish, but I was looking forward to this afternoon! I’d been looking forward to it for two weeks! On Radio Five, Manchester United versus Newcastle. Cans laid in. Everything perfect. And now Laurence was sitting on the end of my bed snivelling into a tissue, and I thought – well, I couldn’t help it, I thought, honestly, is this supposed to make me fancy you?”
(The Other Woman)
“Funny now to remember being a kid. Don’t seem real, all that terror. Like it happened to someone else, in the nineteenth century or something, in a cruel northern orphanage. Once, when little Pete was desperate for a pet, see, Dad found out, so he gave me a big rabbit, coz he knew I didn’t care one way or the other. That’s how it worked. [remembers] Ginger! Yeah, Dad gave me Ginger and said I mustn’t share him with little Pete under any circumstances, but I did, and when Dad found out, he was furious and put Ginger in a suitcase and sold him to some geezer up the pub. We were six and four at the time. Pete went mental. But I think Dad done his best, you know, for all that; he just didn’t know what to do with children, except sort-of niggle them.”
(The Father)
….
{Website review}
Lynne Truss's twelve bittersweet tales about love, romance, friendship and family. Her six men and six women each have very different stories to tell, ranging from the wife who feels better when her husband disappears to the pedant who undergoes a TV makeover and the swimmer who can't escape the shadow of her sister...but all are funny, touching and as beautifully observed as would be expected from the bestselling author. Whether describing fathers and daughters, married men, cat-lovers or "other women", she is always brilliantly perceptive.
12 deeply moving fictional monologues from plain, ordinary humans, whose stories highlight just how extraordinary our personal experiences truly are. Humourous, bitter-sweet, emotional.
I came across it after searching for material from Peter Capaldi. His take on Andy 'The Husband' is so good. Coincidentally, my name is Andy and I am also aged 42 (as are all 12 characters in this series, a certain age). 'The Brother' and 'The Son' are worth returning to more than once. *****
The Brother…………………………….Simon Russell Beale
The Wife…………………………………Janine Duvitski
The Son………………………………….Robert Glenister
The Mother ……………………………..Siobhan Redmond
The Father……………………………….Douglas Hodge
The Daughter……………………………Rebecca Front
The Married Man………………………..Stuart Milligan
The Sister………………………………..Lindsey Coulson
The Husband…………………………….Peter Capaldi
The Other Woman……………………..Lesley Manville
The Pedant………………………………Stephen Tompkinson
The Cat Lover…………………………..Dawn French
“I felt trapped. What are you supposed to do when they cry? I mean, I know it sounds selfish, but I was looking forward to this afternoon! I’d been looking forward to it for two weeks! On Radio Five, Manchester United versus Newcastle. Cans laid in. Everything perfect. And now Laurence was sitting on the end of my bed snivelling into a tissue, and I thought – well, I couldn’t help it, I thought, honestly, is this supposed to make me fancy you?”
(The Other Woman)
“Funny now to remember being a kid. Don’t seem real, all that terror. Like it happened to someone else, in the nineteenth century or something, in a cruel northern orphanage. Once, when little Pete was desperate for a pet, see, Dad found out, so he gave me a big rabbit, coz he knew I didn’t care one way or the other. That’s how it worked. [remembers] Ginger! Yeah, Dad gave me Ginger and said I mustn’t share him with little Pete under any circumstances, but I did, and when Dad found out, he was furious and put Ginger in a suitcase and sold him to some geezer up the pub. We were six and four at the time. Pete went mental. But I think Dad done his best, you know, for all that; he just didn’t know what to do with children, except sort-of niggle them.”
(The Father)
….
{Website review}
Lynne Truss's twelve bittersweet tales about love, romance, friendship and family. Her six men and six women each have very different stories to tell, ranging from the wife who feels better when her husband disappears to the pedant who undergoes a TV makeover and the swimmer who can't escape the shadow of her sister...but all are funny, touching and as beautifully observed as would be expected from the bestselling author. Whether describing fathers and daughters, married men, cat-lovers or "other women", she is always brilliantly perceptive.
March 14, 2020
It isn't often I will think this but the audiobook if this could be a completely different as well as possibly better experience.
The book is twelve monologues by vastly different characters. Some of which are not likeable in text form but looking at the original cast list, they probably are if listened to. The nuances I imagine that the actors give the characters will make a huge difference.
The writing is eloquent and some mundane details stand out as if they are extremely important. Any one of the characters would make an interesting novella if expanded upon too. This is a good read in paperback form but I feel it could well be an excellent one in an audiobook.
The book is twelve monologues by vastly different characters. Some of which are not likeable in text form but looking at the original cast list, they probably are if listened to. The nuances I imagine that the actors give the characters will make a huge difference.
The writing is eloquent and some mundane details stand out as if they are extremely important. Any one of the characters would make an interesting novella if expanded upon too. This is a good read in paperback form but I feel it could well be an excellent one in an audiobook.
July 13, 2018
Very good. Best dipped into, rather than read straight through I think.
September 22, 2018
Varied selection of interesting little short stories.
November 11, 2019
Thought provoking
November 18, 2023
Interesting monologues with a variety of characters. I didn't fall for any of the characters but the stories were all compelling and interesting.
February 18, 2010
To my mind, the word “monologue” conjures up two possibilities. The first is a droning, nondescript, shadowed face. The other is some over-made-up and overly dramatic individual, unconcerned with masking anything, shouting – and sometimes spitting – at me.
Taken from the series broadcast on Radio Four, Lynne Truss’s monologues are something entirely different.
Every one is funny, affecting, as bizarre as real life and, most of all, surprising. There’s the son whose dead father tells him, via a medium, how to open the coal shed door; the wife who decides she is far happier following her husband’s apparent abduction; the neglected husband, lying in hospital determined to be content with a wife who seems to have forgotten him; and the dishevelled pedant, forced to undergo a TV makeover, who falls in love with the equally bookish production assistant.
I didn’t hear the series, but I hope the actors did them justice – they are, simply, fantastic.
Taken from the series broadcast on Radio Four, Lynne Truss’s monologues are something entirely different.
Every one is funny, affecting, as bizarre as real life and, most of all, surprising. There’s the son whose dead father tells him, via a medium, how to open the coal shed door; the wife who decides she is far happier following her husband’s apparent abduction; the neglected husband, lying in hospital determined to be content with a wife who seems to have forgotten him; and the dishevelled pedant, forced to undergo a TV makeover, who falls in love with the equally bookish production assistant.
I didn’t hear the series, but I hope the actors did them justice – they are, simply, fantastic.
October 26, 2014
A series of incredibly moving, funny and insightful character studies originally written as monologues for the radio, A Certain Age tackles the plight of the 40-something through multiple perspectives: the daughter, the husband, the pedant and the cat lover, just to name a few. I checked this out of the library because it was there, and I like Lynne Truss, but I was not expecting to find something so brilliant. This should be required reading for writers who need to brush up on character development.
April 17, 2015
I chose this at random from the Library audiobooks section. It was OK but didn't do a lot for me. A series of monologues (there were only seven on my download, though) read by famous people including Dawn French, Peter Capaldi, Stephen Tompkins, which deal with various aspects of life. Some were more interesting than others but they didn't inspire me to go out and see if there are any more on offer. They also contained background sounds (water noises in a spa, background music, etc) which I found really annoying and intrusive.
June 22, 2011
Why does this book appears to have few followers and is largely ignored by readers?
In her introduction Lynne Truss explains the difference between a short story and a monologue.
Don't let the title deter you, these are engaging and insightful glimpses into human relationships, some amusing, some unsettling but all intriguing
In her introduction Lynne Truss explains the difference between a short story and a monologue.
Don't let the title deter you, these are engaging and insightful glimpses into human relationships, some amusing, some unsettling but all intriguing
December 4, 2011
Absolutely brilliant - wish I'd heard the radio series. 6 women and 6 men deliver monologues on love, romance, friends and family - ranging from the sad to the sublime, from the lunatic to the lonely and everything else in between. Go find a copy!
July 1, 2011
It was a really funny audio. There was 6 different women and their perspectives on certain parts of life.
September 17, 2012
Audiobook - some really good monologues and some ramblings that didn't really 'do' it for me. The stars of the show have to be The Son with Robert Glenister and the Husband with Peter Capaldi.
February 27, 2014
Absolutely perfect. Each story/monologue is a little bit of literary bliss.
April 26, 2017
Brilliant. The writing style is witty and engaging. You are bound to recognise someone you know amongst the characters.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews