Bøker av Louise Dean

Obsessed with death and planning his own funeral, Ken is determined to die in the bosom of his family. But it isn't that easy; his family don't want to know him.His oldest son Nick left home over twenty years ago and reinvented himself. At forty, he has returned home to Kent, and found happiness with his girlfriend Astrid and her twelve-year-old daughter Laura, and he doesn't want the old man to spoil things. He's come a long way; he's a professional, a country gent, a family man.But the past is coming back for Nick and it won't let him be.In this dark comedy, in prose that is funny and moving, Louise Dean sharpens her scalpel again to write about the changing generations, about class and ageing and death too, about England now and the England we have left behind.

Richard's life is unravelling: his beautiful wife, Valerie, is having an affair, his son Maxence may (or may not) be mentally disturbed, and the idyllic life he'd hoped for when they moved to Provence has become more nightmare than paradise. Suddenly, a routine trip to Africa to sell pharmaceuticals is more than he can handle and his life starts to implode as he realizes that the idea of a life full of that love he has cherished is a mere illusion. For Richard and Valerie's neighbour Rachel, a trip to Africa also leads to feelings of confusion and doubt. Now Rachel, and her husband Jeff, as well as Richard and Valerie, are left groping for the things that once defined them. In this bold and tender story, both families find themselves desperately seeking the answer to one question: just what is the idea of love - and can it save them?But for the children in the story, the awkward unsettling Maxence and angelic little Maud, the idea of love is much simpler...