At Freddie's - Softcover

Fitzgerald, Penelope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0544359488 ISBN 13: 9780544359482

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2014

Synopsis

"A jewel of a book." --Daily Mail

It is the 1960s, in London's West End, and Freddie is the formidable proprietress of the Temple Stage School, which supplies child actors for everything from Shakespeare to musicals to the Christmas pantomime. 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.

Filled with unique and hilarious insights into the theatrical world, At Freddie's is a beguiling story for those of us who sometimes pretend to be something we are not.

"Love, fear, class, ambition, even death--it's all in here, but so elegantly presented that you've finished your plate before you even think to ask about the ingredients." --National Public Radio

About this title

Review:

"A work of immense poise and dignity, but warmth and humor, too... This is definitely one of the most charming - but strongly textured - novels anyone will read in a long while." Booklist, ALA

"Fiztgerald is a deft and nimble writer...[who] displays the English gift for understatement. Her apt phrases are tossed off casually; her humor is flicked at us airily. [At Freddie's] is intriguing to the end." The Washington Post

"Mrs. Fitzgerald's special talent is stylistic, a mannered comic dryness that relishes absurdities without dwelling on them too long: she moves at speed, is full of dry observations and inventions, and at her best is very funny." -- Anthony Thwaite Observer

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: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0544359488
• ISBN 13: 9780544359482
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256