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|title=A Spot of Bother

|sort=Spot of Bother

|buy=Maybe

|borrow=Yes

|pages=512

|publisher=Vintage

|isbn=978-0099506928

}}

George Hall is settling down into retirement rather nicely until one day he notices a small patch of red skin on his hip. His doctor says it's eczema, but George is convinced it's cancer and he's dying. George's wife Jean is carrying on an affair with David, George's erstwhile colleague. His daughter Katie is having cold feet about marrying Ray, her reliable but non-U boyfriend. His son Jamie is watching his carefully constructed life in London unravel because he won't go public about his homosexuality and bring his boyfriend to the wedding. Unnoticed by his family, George's grip on reality relaxes as he surrenders to the gathering demons of a non-existent cancer.

I finished the book with that glow you get when you read someone with the keenest of eyes, an enviable talent for the mot juste and the ability to make you laugh. I still didn't like the Halls very much but I was glad their various comeuppances were also the beginnings of their rejuvenations. ''A Spot Of Bother'' is the kind of affable read that's naughty but not too naughty and kindly in its criticisms. I'm not really sure I'm the better for reading it, or if it told me anything that wasn't blindingly obvious to everyone except said Hyacinth Bucket, or if the plot was actually substantial enough to repay the reading. Nevertheless, Mark Haddon is a man with an affinity for words that I can only dream of possessing. And frankly, that's good enough for me.

Alan Bennett's [[Three Stories]] looks at pretensions and snobberies in a slightly less genial but probably more funny way, while [[The Eyrie]] by Stevie Davies deconstructs close relationships with a similarly poetic and precise prose.

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