Announcing SMUT – two unseemly stories form Alan Bennett’s new book

29 March 2011

Composed of two new stories, The Greening of Mrs Donaldson (first published in the London Review of Books) and The Shielding of Mrs Forbes, Smut is as funny and moving as all Bennett’s work, and brings his subversive side once more to the fore.

The Shielding of Mrs Forbes

Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. Though her own husband isn’t all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people’s predilections.

The Greening of Mrs Donaldson

Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating …

Praise for Alan Bennett:

‘Never mawkish, Bennett’s droll wit has you laughing as well as mopping your eyes. Utter genius’ Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

‘Marvellous, ludicrous and touching situation comedy’ Tobias Hill, Observer

Alan Bennett is the author of Untold Stories and numerous works of fiction including The Uncommon Reader. His play The History Boys was the National Theatre’s most successful production ever.

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