Bleakly Hall - Hardcover

Di Rollo, Elaine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701181796 ISBN 13: 9780701181796

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2011

Synopsis

Monty and Ada are old friends. They worked together on the frontline in Belgium, where Monty was a nurse and Ada drove ambulances - like the devil. And now, Bleakly Hall hydropathic has brought them together again.

Monty has just arrived to look after the gouty residents - there to take the Hall's curative waters via nozzle, douche and jet - and Ada is the maid and driver. For all those at Bleakly, the end of the Great War has brought changes. Not all of them good.

Monty has a score to settle with the elusive Captain Foxley; Ada misses her wartime sense of purpose; the Blackwood brothers must reinvigorate Bleakly for a new era; Foxley has his own particular ways of keeping his ghosts at bay. But with the crumbling, rumbling hydropathic threatening to blow its top, what will become of the folk thrown together in its bilious embrace?

This wonderfully original novel brings together an irresistible cast of characters - including Bleakly Hall itself - in the wake of one of history's great tragedies. To powerful effect, it combines fizzing comedy with a deeply moving look at the aftermath of war.

About this title

About the Author

Elaine di Rollo comes from Lancashire and now lives in Scotland. She has a PhD from Edinburgh University in the social history of medicine, and is currently a lecturer at Napier University. The building she works in used to be a hydropathic. This is her second novel. Her first, The Peachgrowers' Almanac/A Proper Education for Girls, which was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book prize, the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award and the Guildford Literary Festival First Book Award, was set in 1857 between England and India.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0701181796
• ISBN 13: 9780701181796
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368