Three Things About Elsie: A Richard and Judy Book Club Pick 2018
The Sunday Times Bestseller‘Lovely, lovely, lovely… Sue Townsend meets Kate Atkinson meets Nina Stibbe’ MARIAN KEYES‘Powerful and profound’ Guardian‘Another sure-fire hit’ Daily Mail‘Funny, melancholy, acutely observant’ Sunday Express84-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, she considers the charming new resident who looks exactly like a man she once knew – a man who died sixty years ago. His arrival has stirred distant memories she and Elsie thought they’d laid to rest. Lying prone in the front room, Florence wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light …
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THREE THINGS ABOUT ELSIE
Joanna Cannon
The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Copyright © Joanna Cannon 2018
Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
Joanna Cannon asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books
Source ISBN: 9780008196943
Ebook Edition © MAY 2018 ISBN: 9780008196936
Version: 2018-11-12
‘Compassionate, thoughtful and tender, it is a novel exploring the pain of nostalgia and personal truths so painful we hide them even from ourselves’
HANNAH BECKERMAN, Guardian
‘A tale of ordinary lives and buried secrets … a well-written, entertaining, effortless read with some arresting insights’
Mail on Sunday
‘Charming, wise and profoundly human. I lived every page of this book’
ERIN KELLY
‘Powerful and profound’
Guardian
‘Irresistibly good-hearted … captivating’
Telegraph
‘Another sure-fire hit for Cannon … abounds with Alan Bennett-esque humour, as well as heart-wrenching sadness’
Daily Mail
‘Funny, melancholy, acutely observant … your heart will finally crack in two on the last page’
Sunday Express
‘A warm, wise novel – brilliantly entertaining – that also manages to be a timely and profound take on ageing. I loved it’
KATE HAMER
‘Light yet heartbreaking, a joy to read’
i Newspaper
‘Funny, touching, and peppered with astute observations … a future classic’
CLARE MACKINTOSH, author of I Let You Go
‘[Cannon] conveys the legion indignities of overlooked old age with touching perception’
Sunday Times Culture
‘A moving, bittersweet story’
Good Housekeeping
‘Cannon is on her way to becoming a national treasure – no one does quirky, funny and soul-searing the way she does’
Emerald Street
‘Poignant, witty and original’
Woman & Home
‘More brilliant, generous storytelling… (a) funny, melancholic tale’
Psychologies
To George and Florrie
Table of Contents
‘How did you fall, Flo?’ they’ll ask when they find me. ‘Did you feel dizzy? Were you wearing your glasses? Did you trip?’
They’ll work as they talk. Putting a cuff around my arm and fastening a plastic clip on my finger, and unwrapping all the leads from one of their machines. Someone will shine a light in my eyes, and someone else will rummage through all my tablets and put them in one of their carrier bags.
‘Did you feel faint? Can you smile for me? Can you squeeze my hand?’
They’ll carry me out of my front room, and they will struggle, because it’s barely big enough for me, let alone these two men and their uniforms. They will put me in the back of their ambulance, in the bright-white, blanketed world they inhabit, and I will blink and crease my eyes and try to make sense of their faces.
