Holly HY / 05 September 2016 / Categories: Non-fiction

The Lady In The Van

The playwright and writer Alan Bennett is close to my heart as we went to the same school (not at the same time)

I haven't seen the film but the book is excellent. It is rare a book ends too quickly but at only 100 pages and pretty large font I whizzed through it. The language is rich and I did need a dictionary a couple of times to look up lovely words that sound familiar but not a clue as to what they actually mean, I do enjoy the learning experience though.

The book is a series of Bennetts genuine diary entries spanning 20 years from 1969, his first encounter with Miss Sheppard (not her real name) to her death in 1989.

What is special about this work and why the playwrights relationship with the bag lady is so poignant is that it is real and the book is a compilation of the authors personal private notes makes it deep and connected in a way you just don't get from a novel.

Alan Bennett is able to connect his leading lady in this tale to each of us, I found so many similarities to myself and my own quirky idiosyncrasies (those things we thought peculiar only to us) even though from one perspective she was a complete social outcast.

I would highly recommend this read in a few hours work. I will definitely be rereading at some point because it reminded me how genuinely good people can be and despite our human need for order and control we never really know how things are going to turn out.