A01=Jennifer Johnston
acclaimed
Anglo-Irish novels
Author_Jennifer Johnston
Booker Prize
books about friendship
books about loneliness and age
Books about the Great War
Category=FBA
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
friendship
Great War
heartbreaking
history
Ireland
Irish novelists
Jennifer Johnston's first novel
literary
moving
novels by Jennifer Johnston
Product details
- ISBN 9780747259343
- Weight: 120g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 07 Jan 1999
- Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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A poignant debut novel of age, loneliness and friendship across divides...
Mr Prendergast, an elderly Anglo-Irishman, is living out his last years in the decaying splendour of his family mansion. As his mind wanders through the gloom he finds it peopled with memories of his neglected wife, his pale shadow of a father, his icily glamorous mother and Alexander, the son she so jealously loved, killed in the First World War.
With only his ill-tempered alcoholic gardener left to attend to him, Mr Prendergast is content to pass his days in such ghostly company. Until young Diarmid arrives, keen-eyed and carrot-haired, to disperse the gathering darkness with curiosity, and the promise of friendship.
'Assured and skilful' Sunday Times
Jennifer Johnston, who died in 2025, was one of the foremost Irish writers of her generation. She won the Whitbread Prize (THE OLD JEST), the Evening Standard Best First Novel Award (for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS), the Yorkshire Post Award, Best Book of the Year (twice, for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS and HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?). She was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize with SHADOWS ON OUR SKIN.
