Holiday

Edwin Fisher is on holiday at the English seaside but this revisiting of childhood haunts is no ordinary holiday. Edwin is seeking to understand the failure of his marriage to Meg, but it turns out that her parents are staying at the same resort whether by accident or design and are keen to patch up the relationship. As the past and his enigmatic wife loom larger, deeper truths emerge and the perspective shifts in unexpected ways. This is an extremely subtle story, a consummate portrait of English provincial life told with all Stanley Middleton s artistry and depth of feeling. It was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1974. At first glance, or even at second, Stanley Middleton s world is easily recognizable The excellence of art, for Middleton, is an exact vision of real things as they are. And because he is himself so exact an observer, his world at third glance can seem strange and disturbing or newly and brilliantly lit with colour. A.S. Byatt