At Freddie's - Softcover

Fitzgerald, Penelope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006542557 ISBN 13: 9780006542551

Publisher: Flamingo, 1989

Synopsis

From the Booker Prize-winner of `Offshore' comes this entertaining tale of a chaotic stage school and its singular headmistress. With a new introduction by Simon Callow.It is the 1960s, in London's West End, and Freddie is the formidable proprietress of the Temple Stage School. Of unknown age and provenance, Freddie is a skirt-swathed enigma - a woman who by sheer force of character and single-minded thrust has turned herself and her school into a national institution., Anyone who is anyone must know Freddie.At Freddie's is a wickedly droll comedy of the theatre and its terminally eccentric devotees.

About this title

Review:

‘Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car. Everything is of top quality – the engine, the coachwork and the interior all fill you with confidence. Then, after a mile or so, someone throws the steering-wheel out of the window.’ Sebastian Faulks

‘Wise and ironic, funny and humane, Fitzgerald is a wonderful, wonderful writer.’ David Nicholls

‘A jewel of a book.’ Daily Mail

‘The wit is crisp and dry, scenes and characters are deftly skewered. Whether you view the theatre as a noble passion or a wasting disease, you are equally certain to be regaled.’ Guardian

‘Enjoy the knowingness of the awful children, the weary fumblings of the professional actors, the constant witticisms at the expense of pretentious directors. An enjoyable, sharp novel...a delicious refreshment.’ Margaret Forster

From the Publisher:

From the reviews of At Freddie's
"The ability to pace herself with the finesse of an Olympic gold-medalist is something that Penelope Fitzgerald happily possesses...With At Freddie's she has both extended her territory and consolidated it. It is a true and strong work...Mrs Fitzgerald's evocation of the ephemerality of the theatre is immensely moving since, by implication, it is also an evocation of the ephemerality of life itself." Francis King

"Enjoy the knowingness of the awful children, the weary fumblings of the professional actors, the constant witticism at the expense of pretentious directors. An enjoyable, sharp novel...a delicious refreshment." Margaret Forster

The wit is crisp and dry, scenes and characters are deftly skewered...Whether you view the theatre as a noble passion or a wasting disease, you are equally certain to be regaled." Christopher Wordsworth, Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0006542557
• ISBN 13: 9780006542551
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160