The Spa Decameron - Hardcover

Weldon, Fay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847240925 ISBN 13: 9781847240927

Publisher: Quercus Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

Ten high achieving ladies are gathered together in the week between Christmas and the New Year, at the expensive Castle Spa, seeking, through Botox, aromatherapy and general all round pampering, a new beginning to their lives. The Ladies lounge around in the Jacuzzi, drinking champagne and eating chocolate telling each other the stories of their lives. Starting with the Trophy wife's tale: her spell in a Greek prison has left her in serious need of a makeover; the Brain Surgeon's tale: of twins and mistaken identity; the Judge's tale: of the sex change which allowed him to judge the pleasures of the bedchamber from both male and female perspectives. The manicurist, the public speaker, the journalist, the company director, the ex vicar's wife, the screenwriter, all share their stories, ending with the stepmother's tale, a reversal of Cinderella's fate, with the stepmother as victim...Sparkling, witty, always compassionate and occasionally libidinous, Fay Weldon's new novel recalls Boccaccio's late medieval masterwork, "The Decameron". Boccaccio dedicated his book to the ladies of his time, who were forced to hide their amorous passions under a veil of discretion, while men were free to indulge theirs.

About this title

About the Author

Fay Weldon is one of Britain's best loved and most respected authors. She lives in Dorset with her husband, the poet Nick Fox.

From the Inside Flap

There's a gathering of high-achieving ladies, at the remote and expensive Castle Spa, over the ten days of Christmas and New Year. None of them has met before. Have they no homes to go to? Why have they put their lives on hold? Perhaps they think they've come to seek, through Botox, aromatherapy and extravagant pampering, a better understanding of their lives? But the ladies are wilful: they lounge around in the Jacuzzi, drinking champagne, eating permitted caviar and forbidden chocolate, and confessing the stories of their lives, startling and scandalous though these may be. Perhaps they have found a better therapy? All female life is here.
The War Correspondent's alter ego as fretful mistress.
The Queen of Public Speaking on the international lecture-circuit, with her loneliness and her heart complaint.
The Trophy Wife: fresh from a spell in a Greek prison, her need for a makeover desperate.
The Brain Surgeon's tale - of twins and mistaken identity.
The Hollywood Screenwriter who thinks her characters have written her.
The Judge: she was once a man. Only he/she knows... which gender takes most pleasure in sex?
The Conspiracy Theorist whose worst fears are coming true.
The Virgin Manicurist from Liverpool - why does she need a bodyguard?
And the cautionary tale of the Stepmother - a reversal of Cinderella's fate, with the stepmother as victim... and in all of them is a little of all of us.
Witty, compassionate and casually libidinous, Fay Weldon's sparkling new novel, in its ten days of storytelling, nods back to the Decameron of Boccaccio - who dedicated his book to the ladies of his time. They were forced to hide their amorous passions under a veil of discretion, while men stayed free to indulge theirs. Weldon's women, on the other hand, are women of today: no veil of discretion for them...

Edition details

• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847240925
• ISBN 13: 9781847240927
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336