A while back I was given 3 Alan Bennett books, I'd never read anything by him before and started off with The Lady in the Van (because I had seen the film), next was Father Father Burning Bright (because it was the one in the middle) and whilst they were very good they were nothing compared to the 3rd book. The Clothes They Stood Up In is funny, quirky and quite absurd, if the twist was more sinister then it would have worked as an episode of The Twilight Zone. The Ransome's come back from the opera to find they have been burgled, everything has been taken, the carpets, toilet paper, underwear, everything was gone....they even took the casserole that was in the oven! Totally bizarre, why would anybody do that and how could they do it without anybody noticing?

The story then becomes a journey of self discovery for Mrs Ransome as she feels lighter having been released from a lifetime of clutter she finds joy in rebuilding her life, finding new shops and changing her character of talking to people far different from her. It is a rather sweet little book, plenty of laughs and it kept me interested with the various plot twists trying to figure what was going on. I was surprised to find this was Bennett's first book, a hell of a start to his career.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/02/01/the-clothes-they-stood-up-in-by-alan-bennett/